Photos by Sal DeFini
Eastern Screech Owls. Red Morph is Mom, Grey Morph is Dad. Chicks down deep in the nest under mom. Right now it’s sleepy time.
Love them! When the male has much more efficient camouflage than the female, is this because it has a greater responsibility for gathering food, while she stays in the nest more? Or is the red colour better camouflage for somewhere else outside the tree?
Good question!
The coloration isn’t tied to the sex of the owl. Screech Owls can be either grey, red, or brown, but they don’t have any issue pairing with each other. The only way to visibly tell them apart is since they are nesting, the female is the one that will stay with the owlets, while the male is out collecting food. Otherwise it usually takes a DNA test to tell the sex of an owl, as they don’t have any reliable visual clues to tell if they are male or female.
Here is a pic where the red coloration blends in better.
That’s amazing! Fascinating that there’s so much variation within the species yet next to none between the genders.
Thanks for the answer!
The typical ways to try and ID sex visually is females are generally the larger ones, a bit more aggressive, and will sometimes have a slightly different shade of coloring, but since all of those things have a range of variation, none are very reliable. Nesting is what really gives the only accurate indication other than genetic analysis, since there the gender roles are well established.
