East Boothbay reader Allison Barter recently sent in photos of a barred owl that was hanging around the yard, and it made us think that it was time to give a little space to one of our favorite owls. 

Because owls are mostly active at night, most of us would never think of any species of owl as being common, but of the owls we have here in Maine, barred owls may be the most numerous. 

We say “maybe” because the tiny northern saw-whet owl, a yellow-eyed owl about the size of a blue jay, has been discovered, through specialized night-time netting and banding projects in Maine, to occur in much higher numbers than originally realized. 

During migration periods, saw-whet owls must pass through coastal Maine in the thousands, yet they do it with very little detection by us humans. 

On the other side of the size spectrum is the owl that some call the “flying tiger” because of its ferocity in tackling even rather large prey items. This, the great horned owl, is the largest regularly occurring owl species in Maine. Standing almost three-feet tall, the great horned owl has two ear tufts (the “horns”) and big, yellow eyes. 

Great horned owls are fairly common in our state but occur in urban and semi-urban areas and in landscapes interspersed with open fields. 

Barred owls are a bit smaller than great horned owls and have dark, not yellow, eyes. They lack ear tufts as well. The barred owl loves the woods, retiring in the winter period to moist thickets of hemlock and balsam fir where there is protection from the elements. 

Sometimes during winter, an individual bird, perhaps one that is young and inexperienced, will have difficulty finding enough of its small mammal prey and thus must hunt even during the day. Often they show up around backyards and bird feeders where they are easy to see as they try to capture mice or other small mammals.

However, most of the time owls stay hidden during daylight hours.  It is only by hearing their vocalizations that you even would know that they are there. Barred owls are known as “eight-hooters,” that is, their songs are two series of four hoots that are usually described as “who-cooks-for-you, who-cooks-for-you-all.” 

On the other hand, the great horned owl gives a much lower resonant series of five to seven hoots.

Barred owls nest in the spring, using a hollow in a tree to lay two to three eggs. Some of the loudest and most frequent hooting occurs in the early spring when territories are being reestablished and reasserted. The Boothbay peninsula is especially well-suited for barred owls, and just about every part of it that has any significant forest has one or more pairs in residence. 

Barred owls are one of more than 100 species of birds we feature in our new book, “Maine’s Favorite Birds.” If you plan to purchase it this holiday season, please be sure to be sure to support the local economy by buying it from a local book-selling merchant.

See more photos of the barred owl here. Have you spotted any interesting or colorful birds around town? Send photos to pix@boothbayregister.com and include your name. Your snapshots could wind up on www.boothbayregister.com or in print.

Dr. Jeff Wells is the senior scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative. During his time at the famed Cornell Lab of Ornithology and as the Audubon Society's national bird conservation director, Dr. Wells earned a reputation as one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists. Jeff's grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, also formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a widely published natural history writer and a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Together, they have been writing and teaching people about birds for decades. The Maine natives are authors of the highly acclaimed book, “Maine's Favorite Birds.”