Barred Owl

About the Barred Owl
Also known as: Wood Owl, Striped Owl, Hoot Owl, Eight Hooter, Rain Owl
Barred Owl

The Barred Owl is a large species of owl that lives across Canada, eastern United States and south into Central America. They are tuftless and have a pale face with dark rings around the eyes, dark eyes and a yellow beak. They are named for the bars on their bodies, which are horizontal across the upper chest and vertical across the lower chest.

Barred Owls prefer to nest in deep moist forests and wooded swamps. They are a highly vocal species. One part of their vocalization is said to sound like they are asking a funny question: Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?

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Details & Statistics

Conservation

The Barred Owl is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). The population trend appears to be increasing, and hence the species does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is very large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

International Names

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