Owls are birds that both birders and non birders are captivated by. While seeing an owl can certainly be a magical experience, finding one can be incredibly difficult if you don’t know how to do it. There is a lot of information out there about how to locate these amazing creatures, but a lot of them don’t really paint a true picture. In this video I’m going to tell you the truth about how to find owls in the wild.
When it boils down to it there are really five ways to find an owl in the wild and to be honest, these are the things that most people won’t tell you. Here it goes.
Number 1: It’s better to be lucky than good
There are a lot of people that aren’t even birders that get to see owls. That’s because it really just boils down to luck sometimes. There have been a lot of times I was out birding and owls weren’t even on my radar when suddenly, a notice one near the base of a tree or I hear one vocalizing from somewhere. This also happens when I’m not even birding. There have been so many times I’ve just been walking around my neighborhood, especially in the winter when it gets dark earlier and boom the neighborhood great horned owls start hooting back and forth. So luck does play a huge role in finding owls, but there are things you can do to stack the deck in your favor.
Number Two: It pays to get familiar with the species
You can help yourself out a lot by knowing about the species of owl you’re looking for. Like all birds, owls can be very habitat specific and won’t readily be found outside of their habitat preference. For example, if you’re hoping to find a Snowy Owl, you shouldn’t spend time looking in the forest, you should scour open fields. However, if you want to find a screech owl, then looking for open tree cavities in the forest would absolutely give you a great chance of success. Additionally, you will want to know what time of year the owls are in the area you’re looking in or if they’re in that region at all. You can spend as much time searching the right area as you want but if its the wrong time of year then you’re just spinning your wheels. Some other things to know are when the birds you’re looking for is most active, what they usually eat, what specific trees they prefer to roost in. What I’m saying is you will greatly improve your odds of finding an owl if you become familiar with the specific species you’re looking for.
Number 3: Re-finding known birds gives you a huge edge
While it’s really fun and rewarding to find an owl on your own, you’ll greatly increase your chances if you take advantage of the fact that other people are out there trying to find them too, a lot of people. There are many groups in which information on bird sightings are shared; state specific groups on facebook, discord servers, telegram, and more. WHile you can get great information from these sources, my favorite is ebird. EBird has searchable information from every report submitted and allows you to search based on species. You can also set alerts for birds you need on your year list, lifelist, or that are rare for the state. If you want to learn more about how to use it, you can take a look at our video about how to find any bird you want using ebird, i’ll put a link in the description below.
Number 4: New technology is basically cheating
Some amazing technology has come out to aid birders and one of them is the thermal monocular. Thermal monoculars help to see heat signatures and are a game changer when trying to spot a well camouflaged living creature concealed by branches. They’re also useful at night when you otherwise wouldn’t have a way to see the birds around you. If you’re a big nocturnal bird person then thermal technology might be right for you.
Number 5: There is an in crowd and you need to be part of it
The truth about refinding owls is that people can often be tight-lipped about where to go to see owls, especially certain species that are rare or sensitive.As much as it would be nice if everyone in the birding community had access to information about owl locations that’s simply just not the case. A lot of times, when people find owls, they will simply not share that sighting or share the sighting without the location. This happens for two reasons, the first is that since owls are a desirable species to see, yet also sensitive to human intrusion, the person wants to protect them. The other is simply that they want to keep that bird location to themselves so they can go back and photograph it day after day. That being said, people out there know where to find owls and if you get intel from the in crowd, you’ll see a lot of owls. I wish it wasn’t the case but sadly it is.
As I said, there are a lot of things out there telling you how to find these beautiful birds but these 5 truths are really everything you need to know. If you liked this video, take a look at another one of our videos about owls and as always, thanks for watching, we’ll see you next time on Badgerland Birding.