Western Screech Owl - Megascops kennicottii

Formerly Otus kennicottii

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Calls - Megascops kennicottii

Male A song	Mixed hardwood-conifer, Klamath Mountains, NW California	© Bruce Marcot
Call B song	Mixed hardwood-conifer, Klamath Mountains, NW California	© Bruce Marcot

The western Screech Owl was first described in 1867. The species name "kennicotti," was created to honour Robert Kennicott, an American explorer and naturalist (1835-1866). Originally, this bird was officially called "Kennicott's Owl". Common names include Little Horned Owl, Dusk Owl, Ghost Owl, Mouse Owl, Cat Owl, Little Cat Owl, Puget Sound Screech Owl, Washington Screech Owl, and Coastal Screech Owl.

Description: The Western Screech Owl is a small, nocturnal, woodland Owl of western North America and is one of the west's more common Owls at lower elevations. They are squat-looking Owls that sit erect, with their plumage fluffed out, with the feet and legs obscured, and distinct ear tufts raised. The iris is bright yellow and the bill is gray to black, with tufts of bristly feathers around its base. The facial disk is bordered by black. The toes are yellow. Plumage is either mainly grayish or reddish-brown variegated dark and light, resembling a furrowed tree bark pattern. They use the variegated plumage as camouflage. When threatened, the bird stretches its body and tightens its feathers in order to look like a branch stub to avoid detection, but will take flight when it knows it has been detected. They have noticeable light spotting along the edge of the scapulars. There is much individual variation within the two colour morphs. In the gray-phase, birds in the dry southwest are a paler gray, while birds in the humid northwest are darker and browner. The red-phase is very rare and found only in the Pacific Northwest.
Adult (gray phase) - Facial disks are dusky white with fine gray-brown mottling. Overall gray-brown, with gray-brown narrow vertical stripes, bars, and spots on the underparts, and barred wings and tail. The legs have fine buff mottling.
Adult (red phase) - Similar pattern to gray phase except dull cinnamon instead of gray. The face is buff light cinnamon. There is rufous spotting on the breast with black anchor marks.
The juvenile of both colour phases is similar to the adults, but the indistinct stripes and bars are more patterned, with many feathers tipped with white.

The Western Screech Owl is likely to be confused with the Eastern Screech Owl and Whiskered Screech Owl. These Owls can be distinguished by bill colour (Eastern Screech Owls have gray-green bills while Western Screech Owls have gray to black bills) and their different calls. Western and Eastern Screech Owls only occur together locally in eastern Colorado and southern Texas. Western and Whiskered Screech Owls only occur together in southern Arizona and Mexico.

During direct flight, the Western Screech Owl flies fairly rapidly with a steady wing beat of about 5 strokes/second. It rarely glides or hovers, but may fly bat-like with erratic movements, when manoeuvring through wooded areas. Wings are broad and the head is held tucked in giving a flying bird a stubby appearance.

Size: Female average Length: 23cm (9.2") Wingspan 56cm (22")
Male average Length: 21cm (8.2") Wingspan 54cm (21")
Weights of different subspecies vary widely. In general, weights decrease from north to south, from an average of 186g (6.5oz) for females and 152g (5.3oz) for males in a northern population to 123g (4.3oz) for females and 111g (3.9oz) for males in a southern population.

Habits: Nocturnal, with activity generally begining 20-30 minutes after sunset. Flight is noisless with soft wingbeats and gliding. Will become motionless if disturbed at roost, and can sometimes be cought by hand in this state. This owl is very aggressive when defending a nest site, and may attack humans.

Voice: The male's most common call is a mellow, muted trill "hoo-hoo-hoo....", or bouncing ball song, that speeds up at the end, but maintains a constant pitch. It is given by the male during the mating and nesting seasons, but also during the autumn and winter. This call is primarily territorial in nature. A secondary song is a double trill of rapid bursts. Other calls are a soft "cr-r-oo-oo-oo-oo" given as a greeting call, and a sharp bark given when excited.

Hunting & Food: Hunts mainly from a perch in open woodlands, along the edges of open fields or wetlands, or makes short forays into open fields. They also capture flying insects on the wing. Small prey is usually swallowed whole on the spot, while larger prey is carried in the bill to a perch and then torn apart.
An extremely wide range of prey species is captured. The most favoured prey are small microtine rodents and deer mice, larger insects, or small birds depending on abundance. Prey species include shrews, orthopterons, insects (including beetles, larval moths & butterflies), birds, pocket gophers, voles, salamanders, kangaroo rats, wood rats, pocket mice, bats, grasshopper mice, gophers, frogs, locusts, and scorpions, crayfish, worms, snails, small fish, poultry, and barnyard ducks.
Pellets are medium-sized, averaging about 3.8 by 1.9 centimetres (1.5 by 0.75 inches). They are compact, dark gray, ovals composed of fur, feathers, bones, teeth, and chitin. Two to four pellets are cast each day.

Breeding: During courtship males and females call to each other in a duet as they approach each other. When together they preen each other's heads and nibble at the other's beaks. The male then changes his call to a rapid tremolo, answered with a short, tremolo from the female.
Western Screech Owls nest almost exclusively in tree cavities. Enlarged natural cavities are preferred but they will also use old Pileated Woodpecker and rotted-out Northern Flicker holes. Nest cavities are usually 2 to 6 metres (6.5 to 20 feet) above the ground, but may be up to 15 metres (50 feet) up. They will readily nest in suitable nest boxes. Nests are almost always in deciduous trees such as oaks, cottonwoods, maples, sycamores and large willows, but also in large cacti, Douglas-fir snags, and junipers. One subspecies in Arizona nests exclusively in saguaro cacti. No nest material is added and nests are kept cleaner than in Eastern Screech Owls. 2 to 5 (average 3-4) eggs are laid on natural sawdust on the floor of the cavity. The average clutch size tends to increase from south to north and from the coast inland. The eggs are laid every 1 to 2 days and incubation begins after laying of the first. The incubation period is about 26 days and the fledging period about 35 days. Females incubate eggs and brood young while males bring food to the nest. The Western Screech Owl is single brooded, but may re-nest if first clutch is lost. Pairs will often reuse nest sites in consecutive years. Pairs mate for life but will accept a new mate if the previous mate is lost. gray and red colour phases will mate together.
Adults tend to remain near their breeding areas year-round while juveniles disperse in the autumn. Small territories around nest sites are vigorously defended by males. In desert riparian areas of the southwest, where these Owls can be quite numerous, territories may be only 50 meters (165 feet) apart. Home ranges are much larger, and range from 3 to 60 hectares (7.5 to 150 acres), but these are not defended and there is much overlap between pairs.

Mortality: Western Screech Owls can fall prey to Northern Goshawks, Cooper's Hawks, Great Horned Owls, Barred Owls, Spotted Owls, Long-eared Owls, Great gray Owls, Short-eared Owls, mink, weasels, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, snakes, and crows.
Western Screech Owls are dependent on deciduous woodlands or open mixed forests that have suitable nesting sites and sufficient prey densities. Removal of riparian forest in drier regions will cause population declines because most densities are highest in riparian zones. However, this adaptable Owl can survive in wooded suburban areas and city parks as long as long as they are not directly persecuted. Populations likely fluctuate more depending on prey availability. Nest box programs can enhance local populations, especially in areas short of suitable tree cavities. Silviculture practices that include removal of dead and dying trees can eliminate this bird as a breeding species from local areas.

Habitat: Western Screech Owls inhabit a wide variety of habitats. On the northwest coast, they inhabits humid Douglas-fir, western hemlock, western red cedar, and Sitka spruce forests along the edges of clearings, rivers, and lakes. Further inland they occupy a narrow ecological niche of lowland deciduous forests, especially riparian woodlands along river bottoms. Southern populations inhabit lowland riparian forests, oak-filled arroyos, desert saguaro and cardon cacti stands, Joshua tree and mesquite groves, and open pine and pinyon-juniper forests. They avoid dense forests because Great Horned Owls use that habitat, and high elevation forests. In general, they require open forests, with an abundance of small mammals and insect prey, and cavities for nesting. They roost mainly in natural or woodpecker cavities in large trees, but also in dense foliage of deciduous trees, usually on a branch next to the trunk, or in dense conifers.

Distribution: Resident from south-coastal and extreme southeastern Alaska, coastal (excluding Queen Charlotte Islands) and southern British Columbia, northern Idaho, western Montana, northwestern Wyoming, Colorado, extreme western Oklahoma, and western Texas south to Baja California.
Western Screech Owls also occurs northern Sinaloa and across the Mexican highlands through Chihuahua and Coahuila as far as the Distrito Federal.
They are essentially non-migratory.

Distribution of Megascops kennicottii
Distribution of Megascops kennicottii