Owl visitor

[RNPAULIE69]

Thank goodness my run is secure!! Saw this beauty 10 feet away from my girls coop

 

[TelfTheElf]

Wow..that looks beautiful(ly deadly)...thank goodness your coop is secure!!!

 

[DobieLover]

What a beauty! Of course, no one would think that if it ate one of your chickens.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

I had the same thought here recently about our coop and run being secure, when we started seeing this.

This is Alfred the owl... he’s become a regular visitor to the bird house at night, where he can watch for mice that visit a nearby bird feeder that come for the dropped seeds.

Alfred is a ‘barred owl’ ... yours looks to be a barred owl also... unless you live somewhere that has different/ similar owl species.

 

[centrarchid]

The Barred Owl is one that does not give me major concern unless young chickens are involved. The Barred Owl hanging out means a more problematic owl is not present.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

By more problematic the sage of Holts Summit, Mo is referring to the lord of the night sky the Great Horned Owl, a.k.a. the destroyer of poultry. I am unsure but there was one reference years ago to a forest ranger wearing a muskrat hat who was attacked and killed by a GHO who mistook the officers Muskrat hat for lord knows what.

The barred owl is so closely related to the spotted owl that the two color phases of the same owl species are interbreeding and this interbreeding is causing the spotted owl to become extinct. The federal gooberment is even hiring sharpshooters to kill barred owls that they find hanging around the malt shops and school yards in spotted owl territory. You know that once you go barred owling then you'll never go back to spotted owls.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

I have a pair of Barn owls. They are gorgeous. Mostly white. Barred owls are very nice too. They haven't eaten my fowl yet.

 

[MissChick@dee]

The good thing about owls is you can protect your birds with a closed door on your coop.

 

[imnukensc]

Barred owls are a constant here. They have never once bothered my free range chickens. I've seen them land 10 feet away from a cottontail rabbit in the backyard to eat a dadgum lightning bug.

 

[centrarchid]

The good thing about owls is you can protect your birds with a closed door on your coop.

Or a barn with screens over ventilation ports and birds always inside on concrete.....