Western Screech-Owl
Supersp #19
Otus kennicottii Elliot

 

 

 

Field Guide IDs:
NG-252; G-174; PW-123; AW-pl 286; AM(II)-160


Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs &
Mating System
Dev. &
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
..
Foraging
Strategy
F?
I: 21-30 DAYS
SEMIALTRICIAL 2
CACTUS
5 - 30 feet

2-5
(2-6)
MONOG
F: 28 DAYS
F?
INSECTS
SMALL VERTE-
........BRATES
BIRDS


BREEDING:

Woodland (esp oak and riparian), scrub, orchards, woodlots. 1? brood.

DISPLAYS:

Similar to Eastern Screech-Owl: Courtship on perch: male bows, raises wings, snaps bill, blinks at female and approaches; male brings food to female, lays it before her, with much hopping and bowing. Established pair mutually preen, also duet.

NEST:

In tree or saguaro cavity, hollow stump, also use abandoned magpie nest, crevice in building. Add no lining material; eggs laid on remnant materials, fur and feathers of prey.

EGGS:

White. 1.4" (36 mm).

DIET:

Varies regionally -- includes arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, fish. Hunt soon after dusk, flying over open areas but never far from trees.

CONSERVATION:

Winter resident. Compete for nest cavities with other small species. Use nest boxes.

NOTES:

Male feeds female during incubation; female is close sitter. Pair often in nest cavity in day. May attack intruder at nest. Highly nocturnal. Adults perform distraction display.

STANFORD. NOTES:

Uncommon to fairly rare resident in wooded areas near the Dish, nesting in cavities. Formerly common in, but now absent from, main campus; this species has apparently not adapted well to urbanization in the Stanford area.

ESSAYS:

Mobbing; Great Plains Hybrids; How Owls Hunt in the Dark; Distraction Displays.

REFERENCES:

Burton, 1984; Marks and Marks, 1981; Marti and Hogue, 1979.

Except for Stanford Notes, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).