Length: 16-23 in.
Habitat: wet woodlands; wooded swamps, floodplains.





In the daytime an owl sitting inconspicuously in a tree is frequently mobbed by a noisy flock of scolding small birds, a sure tip-off to an owl watcher. The Barred Owls far-carrying, rhythmic hooting, heard by day as as night, is often written as Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all? The bird also gives a hair-raising catlike scream. The Barred owl's larger and rarer relative, the great gray Owl (Strix nebulosa), breeds in northern and mountain forests but occasionally appears farther south and east during the winter.