DUET OF LOVE SONGS
Monogamous great horned owls perform winter mating calls
They start at the 11th hour of the night, or in the wee hours of the morning, with a basso song that reverberates through the bedroom window. “Who’s-awake? Me-too,” sounds the call.
A pair of great horned owls utter a resonating, deep-throated song in their annual mating duet. The male initiates the duet from a pine tree outside our bedroom; the female responds from another tree. Both songs eerily reverberate against the windowpane.
I wonder why our cat sleeping in the
bedroom doesn’t wake up in fright and run under the bed. But the cuddly tomcat sleeps soundly and never goes outside, night or day.
That’s good because the imposing, 2-foot-tall owl, with massive talons, is more powerful than typical hawks and can grab house cats prowling outside at night. And it will also snatch rabbits, skunks, opossums, rats and other small mammals.
Great horned owls usually begin mating between January and February, hence the call-and-response singing between the male and female outside my bedroom. They remain monogamous throughout their lives, which means the pair I’ve been hearing are probably the ones I’ve heard several years in a row.
They spend virtually no time nest building but instead take over old nests of large birds, like crows, yellow-crowned nightherons, and even squirrels. Tree hollows and building ledges also serve as nesting sites. The birds simply line a chosen site with sticks, bark and cushiony stuff, like the fur of a recently devoured rabbit.
People often install a nest box for the burly owl because it does eat vermin. And nocturnal vermin are no match against the hunting acumen of a great horned owl.
The bird hunts by ear and by sight. Twin facial disks direct sounds to the bird’s erect, pointed ears. Sound waves strike outsized eardrums, and inner ear receptors send the sounds to the brain’s massive auditory neurons.
Having its ears positioned asymmetrically on its head enables the owl to pinpoint the source of a sound in auditory crosshairs on both the vertical and horizontal axis. The bird can thereby pinpoint the sound of a rabbit nibbling in a vegetable garden.
The bird’s cone-shaped eyeballs, with a large cornea and lens, send maximum light to the retina. Even on dark, moonless nights, the fearsome owl has sufficient light to spot a rat.