How many types of owls are in the Bay Area?
During my talk, Im going to look in-depth at eight species that you can see in the Bay Area, and then Ill talk a little bit about a ninth species thats moving into the territory and displacing the spotted owl. What are spotted owls? The spotted owls are not that hard to see in Marin County, especially around Muir Woods. They have a very specialized diet they eat rodents that are found in redwood forests. But theyre being displaced by a similar but slightly larger and more aggressive species of owl called the barred owl. Where are barred owls from? They originated on the East Coast in Canada and theyve spread west. Its just in the past few years that weve started to see them in the Bay Area. Its really hard to say whether this would have happened with or without humans. I have a feeling that human impacts have accelerated it, but thats just my theory. How can you tell the species apart? Barred owls have vertical, dark-brown streaks on their breasts. They have brown eyes and they dont ha
