mote SODUBON BULLETIN 
Published Quarterly by the 
Pipes OSs A DUB ON S$ 0:C LET Y 
2001 NORTH CLARK STREET, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 
Number 37 March, 1941 
Our Friends the Owls 
By Amy G. BALDWIN 
THERE IS something very thrilling when one sees an owl flying or roosting 
in a tree. With those cat-like faces peering at you, you just can’t feel the 
same toward them as toward any other bird, and when they give their calls 
or “hoots” many are made nervous, especially when walking through the 
woods. 
What a delight it is to go exploring for owls, stealing quietly along, 
looking up through the branches of spruce or other pines to see an owl 
sitting close to the trunk of the tree getting his forty winks. Some of the 
owls sleep during the day, others sleep partly by day and partly by night. ~ 
Their work is done during the evening and night hours when other birds 
have gone to roost. If discovered in the daytime by a person or by crows 
or blue jays they will fiy, but it is usually against their will. They fly 
quickly away to shelter and seclusion, seldom fiying far so that many times 
one can locate them again without much trouble. 
Mr. Bent says “Owls have always been victims of ignorance and super- 
stition, believed to be birds of ill-omen and harbingers of misfortune and 
death. The barn owl in particular has been responsible for many reports 
of haunted houses.” 
The barn owl has several local names, among them being white owl, 
stone owl, monkey-face and golden owl. Monkey-face is quite descriptive of 
him. I have a skin of this owl from a bird found dead and its plumage is 
exquisite, soft, fluffy and beautifully marked. The softness of the plumage 
accounts for the silent flight of owls. I should far rather see him in a barn 
or tree, though, than as a specimen in my box. 
Owls begin their nesting in February, which is much earlier than most 
birds. Barn owls make their nesting sites in hollows of trees, burrows 
under ground, sides of old wells, dove-cotes, barns, water tanks, abandoned 
mining shafts, etc. They lay from five to seven eggs which are pure white. 
Nests have been found with seven to eleven eggs but seldom are so many 
brought to maturity. Both birds assist in the incubation which requires 
from twenty-one to twenty-four days. Both birds have been seen nesting 
together, with eggs under each bird. 
This owl is one of our most useful birds of prey. Its food consists 
almost entirely of various species of rodents. They do their hunting in open 
fields rather than in the wooded sections. When the evening shadows creep 
over the land the barn owl goes to forage in the meadows and marshes. 
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