From Owl Rescue Centre
We have eight different species of African owls living on the sanctuary. The Southern white-faced owls are our 3rd most common species.
Most common are in order: Barn owls, Spotted Eagle owls, White-faced owls, Marsh owls, Pearl Spotted owls, African scops owls, Verreaux’s eagle-owls and lastly African Grass owls.
We also have one solitary African wood owl which theoretically makes him the 9th species. He was accidentally released a couple of years ago when we had that huge fire, but If we’re ever able to catch him, we’ll relocate him back to his indigenous area. 😉
Oh, I wasn’t bothered or anything, just joking with you.
I will typically include any info I do get, plus I’ll throw in any context I feel might be necessary. I’ve never given you guys any less of anything. Sometimes I’ll blur a face or remove a paragraph about donations, but that is all.
I don’t know if I’ve taken the time to listen to much WFS sounds. If you find sound or video clips to share that highlight the differences, that would be neat to see, or if there’s some differences in feathering or something else.
The only sound I found recently though was very cute! I checked the votes, as I shared it as a reply to someone else and it looked like you may not have seen it, so here it is!
I did! In my response are three links: the first is to an article describing the differences, with pictures (TBH I found it difficult to see three visual differences, but they’re described); the second two contain audio clips of the calls of each of the two WFS. They’re very distinctively different, for how much alike they look.
That site (ebird.org) is a great resource, by the way; it’s a standard format for each bird, with descriptions and audio clips, like a ornithology dictionary.
My mistake, I didn’t scroll far enough. I was distracted by the photos.
You are correct, there is no mistaking the one can from the other! The Southern’s bubbling call was my favorite.
I stared at more pictures and still can’t tell them apart. One may be darker, but with every pic having different lighting, I feel that’s not the best thing to go by. I thought the Northern had more white on the belly, but then other pics seem to have a stripped belly.
I agree, the Southern’s is mine, too, probably because it’s so distinctive. I fancy that I like the look of the Southern just a touch more; not that I can distinguish them unless they’re side-by-side. But that call! It’s so interesting they’re so similar looking but so distinctively sounding!