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THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Vol. 123, No. 4, December 2011 
The Wilson Journal of Ornithology 123(4):846-847, 2011 
Eastern Screech-Owl Catches Fish By Wading 
Vladimir Dinets 1 
ABSTRACT.—I observed an Eastern Screech-Owl 
(Megascops asio) wading to catch fish in a small lake in 
the Everglades, Florida. USA. This fishing technique 
has not been recorded previously in this species or in 
other small owls. Received 11 March 2011. Accepted 20 
May 2011. 
Eastern Screech-Owls (Megascops asio) are 
known to capture fish by flying from a perch or 
hopping from shore (Prescott 1985, Gehlbach 
1994), but apparently have not been observed 
wading to catch fish. I observed an Eastern 
Screech-Owl catching fish by wading at Clear¬ 
water Slough in Big Cypress National Preserve, 
Flonda during a 6-year study of crocodilian 
behavior that included extensive night-time ob¬ 
servations. 
vjdj»ek VA LIONS 
Clearwater Slough (25 47' 19" N, 81 06' 00' 
W) is a body of water -500 nr in size, up to 2 n 
deep, and is surrounded by seasonally floodec 
bald cypress (Taxodiuni distichum) forest It ha* 
water current for most of the year but is stagnant 
in spring, when water levels are lowest I 
conducted observations at the slough from I April 
until 15 May 2006. 3 days a week, from I hr 
before sunset until 3 hrs after sunrise, from a car 
parked on a bridge. Full moons occurred on 14 
April and 13 May. 
I observed a gray-niorph Eastern Screech-Owl 
on three consecutive nights starting 11 May 2006. 
t he bird was walking slowly along the edge of the 
slough, at times wading into the water up to 30 cm 
from the shore, to the depth of -3 cm. I observed 
it tor 5 min on the first night starting at 0312 hrs 
EDT. It caught a fish -3 cm longhand 
immediately flew away. On another night I 
watched it for 12 min starting at 0405 hrs It 
flushed after a 1.5-m long American alligator 
whhinT* m * aissi PP!*»*is) approached it to 
less th in , m ' .° n * th,rd n, 8 ht 1 observed it for 
lessthan^nun at 0304 hrs. It caught a fish -5 cm 
Gables! V FL 33146 USA™’ Meniorial Driv e. Coral 
■3-1146, USA; e-mail: dinels@gmail.com 
long, flew to a small branch -60 cm above the 
water and, after perching there for <1 min with 
the fish in its talons, flew out of sight. Both fish 
were caught by a rapid movement of one foot 
They could not be identified, but the shallow area 
where the owl waded was frequented by intro¬ 
duced sailfin mollies (Poecilia latipinna). 
In April 2007, a Barred Owl (Strix varia ) was 
repeatedly seen fishing in the same way at the 
same location. 
DISCUSSION 
Fishing has been reported for many large owls 
(Marks et al. 1999), but there seem to be few 
published observations of fishing behavior by 
small owls. The only other small owls known to 
fish are the closely related Western Screech-Owl 
(M. kennicottii ), which has been observed catch¬ 
ing crayfish and fish by flying from a perch 
(Cannings and Angell 2001), and the Vermiculat- 
ed Screech-Owl (M. guatemalae), which had fish 
in stomach contents (Land 1970 ). This lack of 
data might reflect the uniqueness of these three 
species' fishing abilities among small owls or, 
more likely , poor knowledge of foraging behavior 
ol many small owls. Eastern Screech-Owls use all 
fishing techniques known (Marks et al. 1999) for 
owls: wading (present study), flying from a perch 
(Prescott 1985), and hopping from shore (Gehl¬ 
bach 1994). 
The timing of the fishing activity seems 
unusual, as screech-owls are more active during 
the first half of the night (Johnsgard 19881. The 
slough at the time of observation had rapid!) 
decreasing water levels and high fish density, and 
was attracting many other fish-eaters, t’p to !-' 
Black-crowned Night-Herons (Nycriconn tiycti- 
corax), five Yellow-crowned Night-Heron> 1 V 1 
tanassa violacea), 12 Great Blue Herons {Arden 
herodias), 12 Great Egrets (A. alba), and 2-3 
Wood Storks ( Mycteria americana ) were proe 11 
there at night. Black-crowned Night-Herons were 
replaced at dawn by up to 30 White Ibises 
(Eudocinms albus), a number of smaller egrets 
and, on most days, by five resident North 
American otters (Lontra canadensis). Eig hl 
