(WHTM) — The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) released a post showing owls you can find in Pennsylvania and included links to the sounds they make.
According to a Facebook post from the PGC, owls are mysterious nocturnal hunters that use their talons to catch prey, swallowing smaller animals whole and tearing larger ones into edible pieces with their hooked bill and talons.
Pennsylvania is home to eight different owls, and you can listen to the "hoots" they make by following the links below:
Great Horned Owl
According to the Peregrine Fund, the Great Horned Owl is a top predator of the forests with bright yellow eyes, feathery ear tufts, and powerful talons capable of crushing the spinal column of prey larger than itself. They have a reputation for attacking and eating skunks. They play an important role of controlling prey animal populations and maintaining a balance in the ecosystem, per the Peregrine Fund.
Great horned owls have a three-to-eight-deep, booming, uninflected hoot: "hoohoohoohoo." Click here to hear their hoots.
Barred Owl
According to the PGC, the barred owl is a large bird with a rounded head and no ear tufts. They are the only Pennsylvania owl with brown eyes besides the barn owl; all others have yellow eyes. They are marked with horizontal bars on their chests and vertical stripes on their bellies.
According to AllAboutBirds.org, barred owls are very vocal, as their calls can be mistaken for large dogs. Their call is eight accented hoots, in two groups of four: "hoohoo-hoohoo...hoo-hoo-hoohooaw," which is described as "Who cooks for you, who cooks for you all?" Click here to hear their call.
Barn Owls
According to Audubon.org, the barn owl is a pale bird with long legs, dark eyes, and a heart-shaped face.
Barn owls have become uncommon in Pennsylvania, as populations have been steadily declining in the state over several decades due to the loss of farmland and grassland habitats where they hunt for small mammals and to the loss of secure nesting sites, per the PGC.
Audubon.org says barn owls make hissing notes, "screams," guttural grunts, and grackle-like clicks. Click here to hear a barn owl scream.
Long-eared Owl
One of the rarest breeding birds in Pennsylvania, the long-eared owl is a slender, crow-size bird with long wings, which make it appear larger in flight, per the PGC.
Long-eared owls make soft musical hoots and single quavering hoots, which are not typically heard except during breeding time, which is typically from February to mid-July, per the Animal Diversity Web. Click here to hear a long-eared owl's call.
Short-eared Owl
According to HawkWatch.org, the short-eared owl is a medium-sized bird that is active during the day and at night. They are brown and tan with dark streaks on their chests and have a well-defined paler facial disk and yellow eyes. They have two small "ear" tufts that are not always held upright or visible.
HawkWatch says when mating, short-eared owls make a series of low owl-like hoots. When agitated or in flight, they make a sharp raspy barking call or drawn-out raspy call. Fledglings beg in a raspy tone or chatter in a quick, raspy series. Click here to hear a short-eared owl's call.
Northern Saw-whet Owl
According to the PGC and the Owl Research Institute, the Northern Saw-whet Owl is not only Pennsylvania's smallest owl (body length of 6 to 8 inches and an 18-inch wingspan), but it is one of the state's most charismatic. They are small, reddish-brown owls with large, round heads, yellow eyes, black beaks, and feathered feet.
The saw-whet’s call is a mellow, whistled note repeated mechanically, which sounds like sharpening a saw—hence the name. Click here to hear the saw-whet's call.