It’s difficult to ID Eastern and Western screech-owl species—location is your best bet. Hear their call and learn about their ...

Several readers have phoned with reports of “eerie, whistling sounds” coming from their neighborhoods in the past week or so. My step-daughter also heard it last weekend, from the woodlot behind my ...

Q. Why are they called screech owls when the only sound I’ve ever heard them make are warbling noises that remind me of musical Morse code? A. I was able to answer this question a few years ago during ...

Somewhere just above the cottonwoods, in that realm of darkness on a moonless night, a screech demanded attention. A second screech — every mouse foraging on the ground doubtlessly froze in place. A ...

The sound was unmistakable and led me outdoors to face the thick woods across the road. In the advancing twilight the sound pierced the darkness again, and then again. The ghostly mournful wail, best ...

Though common and widespread, it is rarely seen. More often it is heard. I’m speaking of the Western Screech Owl, the Coachella Valley’s smallest owl. Standing only eight inches tall and weighing in ...

"A screech owl only screeches when it is agitated," Kari Sandage, a naturalist at the 4500 Sioux River Road nature center, explained. "Otherwise, they will let out a whinny." Wait, a whinny as in the ...

Q. Why are they called screech owls when the only sound I’ve ever heard them make are warbling noises that remind me of musical Morse code? A. I was able to answer this question a few years ago during ...