These calls, especially the first one, are not only significantly upslurred rather than downslurred, but they are also less noisy, with bands on the spectrogram taking center stage, giving them a squeakier, less static-like tone. Two of the most effective ways to distinguish a Great Horned Owl from a Barn Owl are the “squeaky” quality and the strong inflection.
The “classic” Barn Owl screech is fairly distinctive, despite the fact that Barn Owl vocalizations are just as variable as Great Horned ones. It is longer than a Great Horned shriek (up to a second long or more), mostly composed of noise, neither upslurred nor downslurred, perfectly horizontal on the spectrogram, and very faintly, if at all, banded. The call might sound like loud static from a television that is switched on and off suddenly.
As usual, when identifying owl shrieks, we should be mindful of individual, geographic, and age-related variation. This bird is from Ecuador, and it has a much higher pitched, distinctly upslurred voice. It retains the species’ characteristic hissing, non-squeaky tone quality, but if this bird were to vocalize in North America, identification would become slightly more difficult: Please update your browser.
I tend to associate the shriek of Great Horned Owl with young birds, but according to the BNA account, it can also be given by adult males and, especially, adult females. Juveniles shriek while still in the nest, and continue shrieking on a regular basis until at least December or January. The shriek is usually short (half a second or less), typically slurred either up or down, and almost always sounds at least partially squeaky (as evidenced by the banding on the spectrograms):
But when I first began following these screeches to their origin, my usual expectation was to see a Barn Owl. Additionally, I believe that some birders may frequently confuse the screams of young Great Horneds with the Barn Owl’s “shhhhk!” in areas where both species are present. Therefore, it seemed appropriate to write a post explaining how to distinguish between these two (unpleasant) sounds.
Warning: this section contains spoilers! The definition of coo appears to sum up the entire situation: “to make the low soft cry of a dove or pigeon or a similar sound.” However, other birds can also be heard cooing. The greater sage-grouse, for instance, produces a series of cooing notes in addition to swishing its wings, booming from its yellow air sacs, and whistling.
A trill can be defined as “a sound resembling a musical trill” or as “the alternation of two musical tones a diatonic second apart.” The wood thrush’s flute-like trill is arguably the most exquisite song of any bird in North America. Not too bad, either, is the descending trill of its relative the veery.
The “characteristic short sharp sound especially of a small bird” is a chirp, and it’s possible that one of the most iconic English terms for bird sounds is “chirp.” The red-eyed vireo perches high in the treetops, where it can chirp for hours on a long summer day, while American goldfinches make a series of sounds that some people describe as sounding like “potato chips.”
Due to its rarity, peent is not included in our dictionary, but birdwatchers frequently use it to characterize the sharp, nasal call made by common nighthawks, which are high in the sky over cities, fields, and woodlands, as well as American woodcocks, which are low to the ground near the edges of fields and wetlands.
A screech is a “high shrill piercing cry. One of the most well-known avian screams is that of the red-tailed hawk, which you may be familiar with from television programs and motion pictures that amplify its call above that of the bald eagle to give the national bird a more intimidating voice. The barn owl is another screecher, and its rough cry may make you feel hair stand up on the back of your neck.
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