While out for a day of birding Maryland natural areas, Caitlin and I saw a Barred Owl perched on a power line along a two lane highway. I was shocked to see the bird on the line in the open, but more shocked at its alert behavior. The bird was hunting the road edge and it was mid-day.

I’m relatively uneducated about the Barred Owl. I thought these birds were strictly nocturnal and rarely active during the day. After doing some research, I’ve learned they occasionally hunt in daylight, however mostly in the first hour following sunset (Mazur and James 2000) . Despite some tendency towards daytime activity, it stills seems shocking this bird would actively hunt a road edge in the daylight. Either way, I thought I’d share.

Referenced literature:

Mazur, Kurt M. and Paul C. James. (2000). Barred Owl (Strix varia), The Birds of North America (P. G. Rodewald, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America: https://birdsna.org/Species-Account/bna/species/brdowl