Screech Owls

[borderhawk]

Apparently, here in Arizona Screech Owls are allowed for falconry (not for apprentices, ofcourse). I'm just wondering if anyone has ever flown one, how they trained, and if they were able to hunt anything other than bugs and mice. It sounds to me like another excuse for Harry Potter fans to have a pet owl.
Prove me wrong.

[dac]

they may be able to take small birds.

[borderhawk]

But how? The best I could see would be roost hawking, cause I doubt they have the speed for anything else, and then I'd be worried that they'd stay up in the roost or tree with their kill.

[dac]

don't ask me I'm only pre apprentice
i was just speculating.

[sohighlyunlikely]

I have a pair that raid my starling traps. I found the federal take records and only 1 was taken for falconry 2005-2007. They can fly pretty fast and I would be curious to see if you could hunt starlings with them. I thought about taking one under the deprivation law(they will kill and eat any of the starlings that sleep near the wire edge.)

[borderhawk]

Thankyou so much for sharing that! My eyes have been openned!

[sohighlyunlikely]

If you want to do some interesting reading about Eastern Screech owls go to this pagehome.bluemarble.net/~pqn/ch71-80/screecho.html Here is an interesting couple of excerpts from the page listed above.

Although birds do not form so large a proportion of the food as mammals, the list of species is a long one, as follows: domestic pigeons, quail, ruffed grouse, woodcock, sparrow hawk, screech owl, downy woodpecker, kingbird, phoebe, wood pewee, horned lark, blue jay, starling, blackbirds, Baltimore oriole, goldfinch, junco, canary, indigo bunting, English and various other sparrows, cedar waxwing, swallows, scarlet tanager, vireos, water thrush and various other warblers, house wren, chickadee, nuthatches, brown creeper, catbird, bluebird, and various thrushes.

A farmer once brought to me a screech owl that had been living in his pigeon cote, and had killed nine of his pigeons; and there are several other similar records. I had one in captivity that broke into a cage and devoured a captive sparrow hawk; I could find only its feathers. Many young birds are taken from the nests of various small birds and fed to the young owls. Dr. Fisher (1893b) records a report of a screech owl, much emaciated and driven by hunger, attacking a large hen and attempting to carry it off. An instance of a screech owl killing a ruffed grouse is recorded by Dr. George M. Sutton (1927)

[dirthawker]

actually 3 western and 1 eastern has been taken for falconry since 2002. I personally think that they have a good potential as owls go for falconry but you need the people that can and want to train them. in AZ you can trap and train them and they are are a neat lil bird. there have been falconers that hunted with them but up till now know one has tried to work with them since the early 70s. AZ just tried to take them off the list for BS reasons saying they couldn't take game and low demand but the HH at one time wasnt considered a falconry bird and look at them now the most widely used bird for falconry in the world. befor 2002 the take of screech owls was not aloud so of coarse know one has reported the uses of this bird for falconry. for those that are interested in this bird and will fly it I say go for it and forge that new frontier for this bird.

[sohighlyunlikely]

Hi dirthawker2004,
I had the years wrong on my info posted, it was 2003-2005. My reference is showing 1 eastern and 3 westerns were taken for falconry use. here is a link to the source. Page 34 has a nice chart of the federal takeswww.fws.gov/migratorybirds/issues/falconry/Final%20Regulations%20EA.pdf If your info is online based I would like to reed it as well.

Thanks
Steve

[dirthawker]

that looks about right 2 of the screech owls where taken here in AZ and they are a neat bird if you are interested in owls. I played with one of them but got bored but I think as owls go they would be a good one as a eyas. 1 of the old timers that I talked to said that he used to take his to the football field after the game just to fly after bugs and bats. it was a good time for him and the bird. I did not have the bird but played with it a bit disclaimer

[Weasel]

I love screech owls! I have rehabbed countless numbers of them and it's never a dull moment when a clutch of young screech owls ends up on your doorstep. I had one I was manning down for a display group and I would let it fly around the room. I never trained it, but it was rather easy to recover. As soon as you walk up to it, it would make itself look like a stick. close his eyes and slick his feathers while standing as tall as possible. His favorite past time while free in the room was to dive bomb my Jack russell terriors as the wandered through.....The dogs were terrified of this little thing.
When I would get a box of young one from a downed tree, it was easy to get them out of the box. I would stick my bare hand down near them with my fingers spread and each of them would latch on with all their might and I simply lifted out 4-5 all at once......they would hold on trying to be a menacing as possible until you simply plucked them off.....Cute little buggars!

[gabrielgarza]

Just revisiting this thread. Does anyone currently have or ever had a screech owl for falconry? Or maybe know someone who does?

I know there are a lot in my area, and a center that is close by gets them every so often. I wouldn't mind trying one out.

[Falcon Boy]

I don't know of any being used for falconry purposes. With the low success rate of much larger owls, I'd imagine catching game with one would be challenging unless you're hawking roosting starlings at night.

[exotic]

Personally just as a speculation there speed could be used very efficiently if used correctly while night owling in maybe lighted parking lots and trained by someone who is quite interested in using them as more than pets.

[gabrielgarza]

I saw a video of a guy from another country using a small owl to catch lizards around his house. It looked like a screech owl. He would use a laser pointer to target the lizard and the owl would catch it. During the night. Seemed pretty fun.