> Teresa....the barred owl almost always has a very gutteral
> gurgle at the end of all of its vocalizations. The
> monkey-like one may have been its agitated call which sounds
> like an increasingly rapid series of agitated hoots, almost
> always with a gurgle at the end in the case of the barred
> owl. The standard barred owl call is an eight note call:
> "who cooks for you, who cooks for you allll" and again has a
> gurgle at the end with barred owls. They also make some
> high-pitched locator calls which almost sound like a person
> screaming and can be imitated by whistling.
>
> Barred owls could easily be in your area.
>
> The great horned is the other large owl possiblility. I
> have not heard all of its vocalizations but its standard
> call is a lower pitched "who's awake, me too" with fewer
> notes than the barred. So based on the number of notes you
> described I'd say its a barred owl.
>
> Wayne Iverson
> SE Seattle
> wivers at seaccc.ctc.edu

I might add to Wayne's good description of these birds that he described
the typical call of a *male* Great Horned Owl, while the female typically
has 7-8 notes in her call. If I can borrow some words for the call of the
emancipated female, "who's cookin' for you, not me too."

The hoot of the Barred is much richer and more liquid than that of the
Great Horned, sounds as if it could become hysterical with ease (they
frequent espresso stands far too much for their own good). One of the
Barred's agitated calls sounds to me like "whoop whoop whoop whoop who
hoooooo" (with the gurgle at the end). Great Horned are usually more sedate
(there's Prozac in them thar rabbits) and lower-pitched. Best thing is to
identify a calling bird, second best listen to a tape.


Dennis Paulson phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound email: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416