[334] BIRDS OF OREGON 



Typical Owls: Family Stngidae 



MacFarlane's Screech Owl: 



Of us as to macjarlanei (Brewster) 



DESCRIPTION. "Upper parts brownish or sooty gray with black shaft streaks and 

 creamy stripes on scapulars and edge of wing; lower parts with heavy shaft streaks 

 and numerous fine cross-lines of black ; legs and feet buffy , slightly mottled with dusky. 

 Male: wing 6.96, tail 3.80, bill from nostril .53. Female: wing 7.2.3, tail 3.85, bill 

 from nostril .57." (Bailey) Nest: A hollow in a tree or an old woodpecker hole. 

 Eggs: 4 to 5, white. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: Permanent resident of southern British Columbia south to 

 eastern Oregon, northeastern California, and southern Idaho. In Oregon: Regular 

 permanent resident everywhere east of Cascades except in extreme southern Klamath 

 County. (See Figure 7.) 



THE LARGE MacFarlane's Screech Owl, with the pale colors of the smaller 

 California Screech Owl (0. a. bendiret), is found throughout eastern Ore- 

 gon where it behaves much as do Screech Owls elsewhere. It is almost 

 strictly nocturnal, usually retiring to some hollow tree or dense thicket 

 to spend the day, and is therefore difficult to see. Bendire (1891) men- 

 tioned a nest and eggs taken near Malheur Lake on April 16, 1877, the 

 first record for this subspecies within the State. Miller (1904) reported 

 it from Wheeler County, Peck (1911 a) from northern Malheur County, 

 and Walker (1917^ from near Maupin and from Moody's Ranch, both 

 on the Deschutes River. Patterson took eggs May i and 14, 19x8, in 

 Klamath County. There are three specimens in the Biological Survey 

 collection identified as this species, one taken at Wapinitia, Wasco Coun- 

 ty, June 17, 1897, one at McKenzie Bridge, Lane County, July 8, 1914, 



FIGURE 7.- Distribution of three forms of Screech Owls in Oregon: i, MacFarlane's Screech 

 Owl (Otus asio macfarlanet); 2., Brewster's Screech Owl (0. a. brewsteri)', 3, California 

 Screech Owl (0. a. bendiret). 



