Eastern Screech Owl - Rufus & Owlive

Eastern Screech-Owls are small, stocky owls with almost no neck and yellow eyes. Pointed ear tufts are usually raised to assist with a camouflaged silhouette. They come in color morphs of gray, brown and red and are patterned with complex bands and spots that give them excellent camouflage among tree bark. They inhabit forests across the eastern United States except Maine and northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan’s upper peninsula. It does not dare go near unwooded habitats. Screech owls are also known as urban owls as they can survive among more urban and suburban landscapes due to their small size.

Eastern Screech-Owls eat most kinds of small animals, including: birds like flycatchers, swallows, thrushes, waxwings, and finches, as well as larger species such as jays, grouse, doves, shorebirds, and woodpeckers; mammals such as rats, mice, squirrels, moles, and rabbits; also, a surprisingly large numbers of earthworms, insects, crayfish, tadpoles, frogs, and lizards. This owl is agile enough to occasionally prey on bats. When prey is plentiful, they cache extra food in tree holes for as long as four days.

Eastern Screech-Owls nest in holes and cavities, but never dig a cavity themselves. Thus, they depend on tree holes opened or enlarged by woodpeckers, fungus, rot, or squirrels. They readily accept nest boxes, including those built for Wood Ducks or Purple Martins, and sometimes nest in wood piles, mailboxes, or crates left on the ground. Females lay clutches of 2-6 eggs with one brood per year. Unlike many songbird species, screech-owls' breeding period is in the winter, with eggs hatching between late January and February.

Rufus and Owlive are Sarett Nature Center’s resident Eastern Screech-Owls. Rufus (red morph) has been living at Sarett since September 2014, and Owlive (gray morph) has been living at Sarett since October 2021. They both sustained injuries in the wild which caused permanent damage which would make it impossible for them to survive, diagnosed by a licensed wildlife rehabilitator –Owlive has neurological damage and Rufus is missing an eye which means neither of them would be able to hunt properly. They each have very individual personalities and ways of interacting with the public.

Sarett Nature Center has a Scientific Collector’s Permit issued by the DNR to allow for possession of these animals for educational purposes.