Flammulated Owl
Learn to identify the Flammulated Owl by ear. Master the "boo... boo... boo..." phrase and tell it apart from similar species.
What the Flammulated Owl sounds like
The Flammulated Owl is a tiny mountain owl with big dark eyes and bark-gray feathers brushed with rusty cinnamon. By day it melts into a pine trunk. By night, its deep, ventriloquial hoots drift through the forest like soft drops of sound.
“boo... boo... boo...”
How to tell it apart
Where you'll hear it
It favors open, mature pine and mixed-conifer forest in western mountains, especially places with old woodpecker holes for nesting. Look in ponderosa pine, Douglas-fir, and pine-oak woods with roomy, park-like spacing between trees.
This owl is mostly nocturnal and easiest to find by ear on warm spring and summer nights. It arrives late in spring, breeds in summer, and often departs again by early fall.
Similar species
Western Screech-Owl
Western Screech-Owl is bulkier, with brighter yellow eyes.
Northern Saw-whet Owl
Northern Saw-whet Owl has no ear tufts and a rounder facial look.
Elf Owl
Elf Owl is even smaller and usually found in desert or canyon habitat, not cool montane pine forest.