Cool Critters: Who goes there? A small owl with bouncing ball call

It’s dusk, and you’re outside taking down the last of the Christmas decorations. Suddenly, you hear what sounds like a ping-pong ball that just got dropped. It starts out slow, accelerates in tempo and then lowers in pitch before coming to a stop.

About a minute later, you hear it again. Whatever it is, it’s coming from a Douglas fir tree on your property. As you walk over to investigate, the frosty air goes quiet. All you see is a thicket of branches and needles.

What the heck made that sound?

Of all the bird sounds we hear in our region during winter, the call of the western screech owl may be the most bizarre. Despite the owl’s name, it doesn’t screech, nor does it go hoo-hoo-hoo. Instead, it produces a series of bouncing-ball whistles.

And January is typically when they start vocalizing.

“They’re warming up for the breeding season,” said conservation biologist Emilie Kohler of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “It’s mostly the males that are practicing right now.”

And it’s not just the woodlands where you’ll hear screech owls practice. They also live in urban areas, adapting well to parks and neighborhoods with large trees that provide nesting cavities and also cover from predators, Kohler said.

Unlike the large, familiar great-horned owl, the western screech owl is small and not often seen. Where the great-horned stands about 20 inches tall and weighs as much as a bottle of wine, the screech owl stands at 10 inches tall and weighs little more than a handful of quarters.

The compact screech owl is also adorable, with a stout body, squarish head and yellow eyes so big and round that it appears constantly astonished.

When frightened, that wide-eyed expression quickly slackens. If the owl feels threatened while perched on a limb or lodged in a tree cavity, it semi-closes its eyes, flattens its pointy ear tufts, slicks its feathers back and stands perfectly still. This newly formed obscure shape, combined with the bird’s drab brown and gray plumage, will trick you into thinking you’re seeing nothing but tree bark.

“When hidden like this, they’re hard for even experienced birders to spot,” according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, adding that most people know the screech owl not by sight but by sound.

Despite their diminutive size and toy-like appearance, the western screech owl is a fierce hunter, Kohler said. In addition to eating mostly small rodents and large insects, “they’re known to take prey larger than themselves, including rabbits and bats,” she explained.

“They’re little but mighty.”

Though still common and widespread, western screech owl populations are declining in parts of the Pacific Northwest, mostly due to habitat loss and timber harvests. But researchers also suspect that the screech owl is being muscled out by a larger, more aggressive owl species that’s a newcomer to the region. Barred owls, native to the eastern United States, have expanded their range westward, competing for food and nesting sites and also killing screech owls for prey.

While not federally endangered, the western screech owl is now considered a Species of Greatest Conservation Need in Washington, Kohler said.

“In certain areas of the state where they were commonly heard, they’ve gone quiet,” she explained. “We’re assessing whether it’s because they’re vocalizing less as a behavioral response to the presence of barred owls or that their populations are declining in those areas. It’s probably due to both.”

Meanwhile, remember the western screech owl you heard calling out from the Douglas fir tree? Sometime in February, you might hear a female join in as their courtship begins. During the courtship period, the males present gifts of food to the females by laying it before them and then bowing, according to the National Audubon Society. Once committed, the pair will perform duets through the breeding season and until the eggs are laid.

Unlike many birds, their relationship won’t end there, as these tiny, mighty predators typically mate for life and breed once a year.