Recently went walking and camped at a wonderful owl spot. Heard Sooty, Boobook and Powerful Owls. However, around 4:30 in the morning I heard a screeching noise. It involved up to 5 seconds of non-stop screeching then a break of up to 10 seconds and then continued again. This went on for well over an hour. I eventually decided after little sleep to investigate. Every time I got near it, it flew further away. I finally managed to observe it and found out there was a pair. They were bigger than Sooty's and I couldn't see their colour due to a dim torch and fear of disturbing them.
Any thoughts on what they were?
Maybe a Barn Owl?
Shorty......Canon gear
Canberra
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawshorty/
Probably barn owls, they do have quite the horrifying screech and can be quite persistant if you're in the right area.
Birding Blog: Close Encounters of the Bird Kind
Please describe the area you were in.
Absolutely no chance they'd be Eastern Barn Owls, those are tiny compared to Sooty Owls.
Based on your user name, you were out near Megalong Valley or Kedumba?
Most likely Sooty Owls although if there is enough dry forest in the area and open country Masked Owls could be a possiblity.
My guess is imm Powerful Owl. They can make repeated hissing noises. Lorne, Bundanoon, NSW.
Hi Lorne
I'm curious where you heard immature Powerfuls hiss?
All I've ever heard were the constant trills even in ones with complete adult plumage.
In fact, I've never even heard adults hiss. I've heard bleats, cooing like a pigeon, even recorded a call that reminded me of Wood Ducks and the female often squeals after copulation.
Regards
Ákos
Hissing and screeching noises are typical of the Tytonidae family.
By 'hissing' I mean trilling, Akos. There's an ambiguity there. It depends on what we all define hissing and trilling! Imm Powerful Owls can make a lot of trills/hisses in a short period of time. Lorne
It's all good mate.
I think we need to be very careful how we present help to others so we try and be fairly accurate with our descriptions of calls especially, which are really difficult to describe. I mean take the White-throated Gerygone call. How would one describe it? If we said to someone the book says "falling leaf song", which I've read in some book, they'd say WTF???
Here is my chick from Glenbrook on January 6, trilling still. I don't think it sounds like a hiss at all, do you?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbWQTtl-Pzc
If you stick your tongue to the back of your teeth and blow air out you hiss, or if you think of a cat hissing. That's a Tyto sp vocalization, nothing else.
If you stick your tongue to the roof of your mouth and blow air out you get a vibrating sensation, which when coupled with making a noise with your voice box will sound like a trill. Kind of like blowing a referee's whistle with the little ball inside it. That could be more of a trilling sound too.
As you said, immature/chick Powerful Owls will trill all night, from dusk until dawn. I suspect with the original poster saying "camping recently" it was in the last few weeks. By now immature owls should not be begging at all (the trilling is a distinct begging call), instead they'd be finding their own territories and I would strongly suspect stop begging.
I've spent more time with Powerful Owls than could be thought of as sensible in human terms and have yet to hear a distinct hiss. Even reading through HANZAB it is not recorded as a type of call in Powerful Owls.
I've sent a message to Owl of Kedumba with recordings I have of Sooty Owls. Hopefully that will help with narrowing it down.
For interest, here are some Masked Owl screeches from Xeno-Canto
http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Tyto-novaehollandiae
Here are some Eastern Barn Owls
The very first recording from the Capertee Valley has some hisses starting around the 7 second mark.
http://www.xeno-canto.org/species/Tyto-delicatula
One thing of importance is that without seeing the species of Tyto owl it is usually impossible to tell which it is when they hiss, as they sound very, very similar. Even Sooty Owls hiss/screech when they first fledge, as they are not able to make the typical "falling bomb drop" call or the buzzing that sounds like a bunch of crickets going off in the canopy.
Good point there on the size, I seemed to have overlooked that point.
Birding Blog: Close Encounters of the Bird Kind
Thanks for all that Akos. Fascinating. My favourite memory of Powerful Owls was seeing an immature PO eat a Crimson Rosella whole one night in the early 1990s at North Epping, Sydney. It took a while! The bird was flanked by its parents, who looked on with interest. Calling a Sooty Owl out of a patch of dense eucalypt forest on dusk at Kioloa State Forest, NSW (for a mate to tick) 2 and a bit yrs ago was another spotlighting highlight. And another Sooty Owl carrying a swamp rat in its talon at Katandra Reserve on the NSW Central Coast (late 90s). Then there's the five Barn Owls in the one tree out near Leeton in 2000. I could go on... Lorne
Owls are the pinnacle of birds in my opinion Lorne. And not forgetting those lovely diurnal raptors. Just divine.
Don't sweat Rebecca!
No not Kedumba. Actually in the Mugii Murum-Ban SCA north of Gardens of Stone. It's quite dry around there and open. My thoughts were Masked maybe because they were bigger than Sooty Owls but definitely not Powerful size. Also there were two owls of the same size and would not be immatures. Also this was just last week.
I don't think you can rule out immatures based on size and the fact you never got to look at them properly in the first place. I would suspect Masked Owls. Although that is generally a very calm species with people around and can be approached easily. Based on the view on Google maps, the terrain appears more suited to Masked Owls than sooties.
Check your private messages, I've sent a couple of links to calls of Sooties, just to be safe to rule them out. Then again, immature sooties would screech, not call in the other known calls, so without photographic evidence or definite sighting it is difficult to be 100% certain of species and most certainly of their age.
All I can suggest from your description is that it was most likely a large Tyto sp. And likely Masked Owl(s).
After listening to Barn Owl I can say that they did not sound much like that. The Masked Owl call is definitely similar. However it was very persistent.
Kalang,
I found this searching for some Megalong Valley birds this morning.
Where you say persistent in the last post, that definitely sounds like a young Tyto species begging. They go on and on and on.
I've got a pair of Eastern Barn Owls nesting near the Regatta Center at Penrith, and the young just keep sort of hissing.
However, the only thing you say make me still think yours were Masked is the size you mention. Though without being able to compare to a like species without seeing them can be tricky.
I'm going up the Megalong this afternoon, hopefully will find some Wedgies.
Hey Akos,
This could be true, but it's too long ago now to say anything for certain. I have learnt quite a few things since then and I'm much more confident with owl calls now. Even just a few months back I laugh at the things I didn't know!
Next week I'll be down in Kedumba to look at some owls, so I'll let you know if I find anything interesting.
Today's a beautiful day for birds, there should be lots around. I've noticed a lot of raptor activity this month including 3 Wedgie's, many sightings of Peregrine's, a Sparrowhawk etc.
It's worth noting the overwintering of honeyeaters in the Mountains this year, you should check out the heaths, especially Narrow Neck if you haven't already.
I'd love to hear what you find down in the Megalong, thanks.
It was pretty quiet overall.