7 Species Of Owls In South Carolina

Today, I will discuss the species of owls that have been found in South Carolina. These owls are typically nocturnal, solitary, and tiny to large birds of prey.

And their prominent facial disks are a circle of feathers that surrounds each eye, large forward-facing eyes and ears, hawk-like beaks, and other physical characteristics. According to research, at least seven species of owls have been found in South Carolina and they are;

1. Eastern screech owl
2. Great horned owl
3. Snowy owl
4. Burrowing owl
5. Barred owl
6. Long-eared owl
7. Northern saw-whet owl

But in this post, I will discuss only seven. So, let’s get to it.

READ: 10 Species Of Owls You Can Find In Michigan

1. Eastern Screech Owl

The eastern screech owl is one of the species of owls that have been identified in South Carolina, and they can also be found in almost every part of the world.

However, in terms of size, the greatest tropical screech owls do not outweigh the eastern screech owl (or its western counterpart) in average or maximum weight.

But they are outclassed in length by Balsas, long-tufted, white-throated, and rufescent owls in approximately increasing order.

Plus, Eastern screech owls only spend the day in tree cavities or adjacent to their trunks, making them nocturnal. They are rather typical and often encountered in residential areas.

Even, they are much more frequently heard than seen, though, because of their small size and camouflage. It’s common to hear these owls calling at night, especially in the spring when they breed. The eastern screech owl makes a whiny-like, falling tremolo sound that is reminiscent of a small horse.

They also generate a monotonous, 3- to 5-second trill, and their distinct vocalizations are easy to identify and have phrasing that differs markedly from that of the western screech owl.

2. Great Horned Owl

Great horned owls have been recorded in South Carolina, and in terms of habitat adaptation, the great horned owl is one of the most flexible owl or even bird species in the world.

The great horned owl can live in trees that are close to a variety of deciduous, coniferous, and mixed forests, tropical rainforests, pampas, prairies, mountainous regions, deserts, subarctic tundra, rocky beaches, mangrove swamp forests, and some urban areas.

In the Americas’ harsher regions, it is less typical. They are exclusively present on the rocky or forested edges of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, not in the center of the deserts.

They are uncommon even in North America in areas with more than 70% old-growth forest, such as the aspen forest of the Rockies.

They favor locations with a contrast between open habitats, where they frequently hunt, and wooded regions, where they frequently sleep and lay their eggs.

Thus, sparsely inhabited rural areas can be ideal. Occasionally, this species can be seen in cities or suburbs.

Contrary to eastern and western screech owls, which may frequently be found in busy suburban settings, they appear to prefer locations with less human activity and are most often seen in park-like settings in such developed areas.

The unmated and younger great horned owls roam freely in search of companionship and territory, and they migrate away from areas with low food in the winter. However, all married great horned owls remain year-round residents of their territories.

3. Snowy Owl

Snowy owls are among the biggest owls in the world and the largest avian predator of the High Arctic. On average, snowy owls weigh between sixth and seventh among all surviving owls, are about the fifth in length, and may perhaps be the third in terms of wingspan.

This species is the second-heaviest and third-longest winged owl in North America, and the second-heaviest and third-longest in Europe, but it is dwarfed in bulk by around three to four other species in Asia.

The great horned owl and snowy owl are sometimes compared in size, but the snowy owl is slightly larger in all respects than the great horned owl.

The similarly specialized great grey owl (Strix nebulosa), which lives in the taiga, is longer overall and has similar dimensions to the snowy owl but is lighter and shorter-winged.

In Eurasia, the Eurasian eagle owl is larger than the snowy owl by all measurements, in addition to two other species from each Africa and Asia that are, on average, slightly too much heavier.

In contrast to most non-raptorial birds, the snowy owl exhibits reverse sexual dimorphism, meaning that females are larger than males.

The ability to more successfully survive food shortages, such as those that occur during brooding, as well as the rigors involved with incubation and brooding may be correlated with sexual dimorphism that benefits the female.

Females are occasionally described as “huge” whilst males appear more “neat and compact”.

READ: 5 Most Common Species Of Owls In North Carolina

4. Burrowing Owl

In open areas of North and South America, the burrowing owl (Athene cunicularia), commonly known as the shock, is a tiny, long-legged owl.

And you can often see them in any open, dry environment with sparse vegetation, including grasslands, rangelands, agricultural areas, and deserts.

In tunnels dug by prairie dogs, for example, they lay their eggs and spend the night. Burrowing owls, unlike the majority of owls, are frequently active throughout the day, however, they usually stay out of the sun’s heat.

Nonetheless, burrowing owls, like many other owl species, spend the majority of their hunting time between twilight and morning, when they may make use of their superior night vision and hearing.

The burrowing owl’s larger legs allow it to run because it lives in open grasslands rather than woodlands.

Burrowing owls likely lived in every suitable location in the New World before European settlers arrived, but since then, their range in North America has been somewhat constrained.

They are extending their range due to deforestation in some parts of South America. Most of the western states, as well as the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, are home to western burrowing owls.

There are known resident populations in parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and California; it is claimed that human encroachment and construction pose a threat to these populations’ survival.

The southern regions of the western Canadian provinces, all of Mexico, and western Panamá are all home to burrowing owls.

In addition, some Caribbean islands and all of Florida are home to them.

They are fairly widespread in South America and are known to reside in all of the continent’s nations, except the interior of the dense Amazon rainforest and the highest peaks of the Andes Mountains.

The colder, perhaps subtropical coastal and temperate zones are where they choose to live. Their population is extensively dispersed south of the Amazon, from southern Brazil and the Pantanal down to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.

5. Barred Owl

Here is another specie of owl spotted in South Carolina. The barred owl has a variety of sounds that are described as “spectacular, loud, and emphatic,” and the barred owl is a skilled vocalist.

In fact, his calls likely go more than 0.8 kilometers (0.50 mi).

Its normal call consists of eight accented hoots, ok-ok-ok-ok ok-ok-buhooh, also known as the “typical two-phrase hoot,” which has a downward pitch at the end.

Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all is the most popular mnemonic to help you remember the call. And the barred owl is occasionally called Old Eight-Hooter in slang because of its most well-known call.

In Virginia, barred owls replied to the replay of this sound at 80% of the research sites. A further call is the “ascending type” or “legato” call, which consists of a succession of varying notes that conclude in oo-aw or hoo-aah.

The barred owl has a long life by nature. 18 years and 2 months (originally banding Kentucky; death in Ohio) and 24 years and 1 month (in Minnesota) are a couple of the longest reported lifespans in the wild according to banding studies.

Many instances of breeding barred owls successfully nesting for ten years or longer have been documented.

The rise in offspring more than made up for the rise in deaths from sickness, car accidents, and other sorts of collisions.

Similar to Piedmont, South Carolina, suburban areas had better owl productivity and accounted for 41% of the local owls’ territories, but it appeared that anthropogenic mortality was higher there.

In Ohio’s suburbs, the barred owl’s range consisted of 41.4% forested land, 29.8% low-density housing, and less than 15% pasture.

6. Long-Eared Owl

The distributional range of the long-eared owl is enormous, and they can be found almost anywhere in America including South Carolina.

They are spread across Eurasia from the Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles, where, unusually for an owl, they can be found rather sporadically but broadly.

The species is present in Louisiana (apart from the southeast) and a sizable portion of northern Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, as well as in northern Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and southern Pennsylvania.

These birds have very infrequently been spotted in Florida (during unusual irruptions) and even the Bermudas as a vagrant.

READ: 8 Birds With Insanely Long Necks

They can also be found during the winter and migration along much of the east coast of the United States, from North Carolina’s Outer Banks north to much of southern New England, including nearly all of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and southern New Hampshire.

They can also be found broadly in eastern Pennsylvania, almost anywhere in Delaware or New Jersey, southeastern New York, including New York City.

Nearly everywhere in Europe, from western France eastward, they are to be found. There are a few places in Italy, Austria, and Southeastern Europe where they don’t typically appear, yet they’re still rather abundant overall in these regions.

While they typically remain year-round in haunts in the southernmost points of Norway and Sweden, respectively, as well as throughout the entirety of Denmark, they are only found in Scandinavia as a breeding species in around the southern two-thirds of Norway, Sweden, and Finland.

They are mostly missing from the western and coastal portions of British Columbia, and their breeding range barely extends into the southern Northwest Territories.

Their northern limits are reached in much of that province. They are typically found up to 50 degrees north, as is the case over the majority of Eurasia.

The majority of Alberta, all except the northern half of Manitoba, southern Ontario, and Quebec, as well as the Hudson Bay region to the south, are also nesting grounds for long-eared owls.

7. Northern Saw-whet Owl

The northern saw-whet owl has two subspecies: the non-migratory Aegolius acadicus brooks, which is endemic to the Haida Gwaii archipelago in British Columbia, and the Aegolius acadicus acadicus, which may be found throughout North America, and South Carolina.

The Haida Gwaii saw-whet owl which has been considered a distinct species can be recognized by its darker, buffier plumage.

It has been discovered that isolated populations of northern saw-whet owls in the Allegheny Plateau and Southern Appalachian Mountains are as genetically divergent as the subspecies A.a.brooksi in British Columbia and differ morphologically from mid-range owls.

READ: What Do You Call A Group Of Owls?

They can even breed in the far north, where most birds migrate to nest, but their range is fairly wide. Being an adaptable species, they can survive in the cold.

Key Points

These seven species of owls have been found in South Carolina;

• Eastern screech owl
• Great horned owl
• Snowy owl
• Burrowing owl
• Barred owl
• Long-eared owl
• Northern saw-whet owl