This book by a wildlife photographer is about the nineteen different owl species that live in the US and Canada. It’s arranged by season- so one section will describe what owls do and struggle with in the fall, the spring chapter is about finding and holding territories, courtship and mating. Summer chapter describes how the young are raised, what they feed on, successful fledging etc. And the winter segment tells how young owls face their first winter, overall their survival strategies including migration or dispersal to wider ranges to find enough food. There’s quite a bit of overlap (some of it feels repetitive) but each section has good details on how the different owls lead their lives. Especially about how they utilize different parts of habitat and their very specific needs for certain tree types or age of the forest. From the impressive great grey owls and snowy owls, the famed northern spotted owl (at least it is in my mind, for controversy over reducing timber harvest to protect habitat this species needs) to diminutive pygmy owls and elf owls. Then there’s northern hawk owls (a species I didn’t know about), the cute and gregarious burrowing owls, and the swift-flying short-eared owl. And more. A lot of the info about their predatory habits and chick-raising methods felt really familiar since I just read a book about hawks (or buzzards as they’re called in Europe) and both types of birds are, of course, raptors. Especially the part about how some owls (and the buzzards) raise large broods with staggered hatching times. This means that the oldest chicks are a lot larger than the youngest, and commandeer most of the food. It might seem cruel, but is a survival strategy. If suddenly there’s not enough food- such as from a rodent population crash- the younger and weaker chicks soon starve, and what little food is available goes to the older ones, so at least one of those may survive. Some owls (and those buzzards) will even feed the dead offspring to the living ones, making the older chicks cannibals.
But what really makes this book is the photographs. They’re just stunning. Large, excellent, beautiful focus and pose, capturing tender moments, battles between rivals (or between owls and other birds of prey), owls poised in flight, snagging prey, the awkward and endearing fluffiness of young ones just out of the nest, clinging to branches. I went through the book entirely all over again a second time, turning every page to look long at the pictures. The alien-looking angular faces of half-feathered barn owl chicks. The curiously wrinkled eyelids on young flammulated owls. The scowling visage of three great-horned owl nestlings in a cave. The wide-eyed startled-looking cuteness of burrowing owls, all lined up in a row.
Similar read: The Hidden Life of Owls.
Borrowed from the public library.
