Last month, I observed a bird on my property that had never been seen or heard there before. As I was getting ready for bed, I heard an owl calling from the forest in my yard. I hear owls frequently at my house, so at first I just assumed it was a great horned owl making an unusual call. When I finally got into bed and really started to listen to it, though, I realized that the owl I was hearing sounded just like a spotted owl! I jumped out of bed and ran onto my porch, opened up the app on my phone that identifies bird calls, and waited. As soon as the owl started calling again, my Merlin app confirmed it: it was a rare spotted owl, the first one ever documented on my property since my family moved to Sebastopol in the 1950’s.
The subspecies of spotted owl that lives in Sonoma County is called the northern spotted owl. Northern spotted owls are listed as threatened under the state and federal Endangered Species Acts. Since they prefer densely forested habitat, their population is very susceptible to habitat loss from logging activities and fires. They have also suffered a severe population decline due to the rapid range expansion of their close relative the barred owl. Barred owls are very aggressive, and outcompete spotted owls for food and habitat, leading to the displacement of spotted owls throughout their range.
The northern spotted owl is a medium-sized, brown-colored owl with white spots on its chest, belly, back, and wings. Northern spotted owls have large black eyes, and round heads with no ear tufts. They are nocturnal, meaning they hunt primarily at night. Their preferred prey consists of flying squirrels in the northern part of their range, and dusky-footed woodrats in the southern part of their range, which includes Sonoma County…