This morning I saw two Barred Owls on the ground. From a distance of a few hundred feet, even with binoculars, I couldn't make out great detail about what was going on, but I presumed it was a territorial dispute and that perhaps one of the owls was being attacked. Or, perhaps one owl caught some prey and the other wanted it. But the seemingly aggressive behavior was not continuous; it would start and stop. Over the course of about 15-20 minutes, this went on--lots of owls on backs, flapping wings, interspersed with moments where they'd stop, sometimes face each other, sometimes hunker down and get hard to spot, then sit up a bit taller, then physically interact again. Most of the time, one or both of the owls were vocal as well (usually the very high pitched wail). At some point, a third one flew in (but did not land near the other two), but I did not see if it landed nearby or continued on. Neither of the two owls on the ground paid it any obvious attention.
I perused my bird behavior books, and many owl-based websites, and didn't find anything specifically describing what I saw (in fact, and much to my surprise, even my Stokes Guide to Bird Behavior repeatedly states "not much is known" about various Barred Owl activity). Eventually, both of the owls that were engaged with each other on the ground flew away, in the same direction, and moments later one was heard giving its typical who-cooks...call. Not sure what happened with the third owl that had flown in. As to what exactly was going on, I'm left not fully certain and would gladly hear any input from anyone who's witnessed anything similar. I assume the birds were not likely to be mating on the ground. I also assume that a fight would not result in both birds flying off together (or what appeared to be "together"), or taking "timeouts" during the act wherein both birds were just apparently relaxed and disengaged before eventually continuing with the tussle. Any thoughts? Kyle Te Poel Stillwater Township, MN ---- General information and guidelines for posting: https://moumn.org/listservice.html Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html During the pandemic, the MOU encourages you to stay safe, practice social distancing, and continue to bird responsibly.