Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2016 November 18

= November 18 =

Owl Call Identifictaion Requested
Crossing Central Park (NYC) I heard an owl calling, something I have not heard for decades. The call was as follows, with length indicated in caps, since I can't write music:

LOW-mid.mid.midlow-midlow-midlow

The call lasted about three seconds, the first note could be imagined as a long A, with a short pause, two short, back-to-back C notes with another C that lower back into an A, with the C lowering back to A repeated twice after short pauses. (I have the relative contours right as to length and relative pitch, but cannot give an absolute difference in pitch, as I am only a music listener.)

One might imagine this written for the lyrics "DON'T take the subway subway subway." The owl was about 50 feet into the woods off the road to my right, and after I paused to listen I heard another, more highly pitched owl responding, with the same call, about 100 feet to my left. This continued as long as I paused, about a minute or two, hearing maybe 20 calls.

Thanks. μηδείς (talk) 05:49, 18 November 2016 (UTC)


 * After some hunting around the best match I can find (not very close) is this which is a Great Horned Owl, reported here as being a rare visitor. This site also names the other owls to be found in Central Park. Richard Avery (talk) 07:46, 18 November 2016 (UTC)


 * The call to which you linked starts out the same, with the first four "notes" sounding the same, but the ending in the clip (and others posted at youtube) didn't end with the falling-off "subway subway subway". I suspect it was indeed a Great Horned Owl, though.  What I heard was not a lone bird's territorial call at sunset but at least two birds alternating calls just before midnight. μηδείς (talk) 18:47, 18 November 2016 (UTC)


 * See also here. Count Iblis (talk) 23:41, 18 November 2016 (UTC)


 * There is a rather long and varied duet between two Great Horned Owls here: . They seem to lengthen their calls with less vocal hoots about midway through the recording and especially at the end. --Modocc (talk) 20:02, 18 November 2016 (UTC)


 * Yes, the "duet" link is, for all intensive purposes, the same one that I heard, just with a slight variation in the final hoots with the downward steps I have mentioned. Thanks, we can consider this resolved, unless others have further comments. μηδείς (talk) 22:14, 18 November 2016 (UTC)


 * So you don't mind that it might not fit for extensive purposes? —Tamfang (talk) 18:33, 19 November 2016 (UTC)