Boreal Owl

Status Rare winter visitant. Although Blakiston and Bland (1856) rated it as "resident inland," this status is unsupported by other nineteenth-century authors. However, it may have been more regular in early days, for Jones (1879) states that it was "becoming very rare." Available records in the present century are few, ranging from October to March. A minor invasion occurred in 1922-23, when two were collected in Kings County, two in Colchester County and one in Cumberland County. A large female taken near Wolfville on 3 January 1932 had eaten a White-winged Crossbill. Since then there have been only seven reports: early March 1968 in Pictou County (H. Brennan); 23 December 1968 on Sable Island (see Remarks); 12 October 1969 on Brier Island (I. McLaren, R. Hughes); early January 1978 at Homeville, Cape Breton County (C. Ferguson); 23 December 1978 in Halifax (the photograph by Freeman Patterson was published in a bird calendar); 21 December 1980 on the Cape Breton Highlands National Park Christmas Bird Count; and a dead bird on 15 February 1982 at Malagawatch, Inverness County (J. McNicol).

Description Length: 23-30 cm. Adults: Above, chocolate-brown, mottled with white spots; below, white striped with brown; forehead flecked with small white spots; facial disc light gray with dark borders; eyes yellow; bill yellowish gray; no ear tufts.

Range Northern forested parts of the Northern Hemisphere. In Canada its breeding range extends across the continent from the northern coniferous forests south (in the east, to southern New Brunswick). Wanders irregularly farther south in winter to the northern United States.

Remarks This bird's highly nocturnal ways and secluded, heavily wooded habitat make one suspect that it may have occurred here in summer but escaped observation. I found it nesting regularly on nearby Grand Manan (New Brunswick) and thus it would not be wholly surprising if someone were to find it nesting here.

Here is the story of a Boreal Owl I kept in captivity for about 10 months. On 23 December 1968, in bleak weather, Norman Bell found a very tired, hungry and utterly dejected Boreal Owl sitting on the ground near the West Light on Sable Island. Weak from exhaustion, the bird offered no resistance when he picked it up. It was fed House Sparrows, which it accepted with eagerness, but these were not numerous on Sable Island and so it was decided that the little waif would be flown to the mainland and delivered to me. It arrived in splendid condition, alert and most friendly, on 18 January 1969 and soon became the centre of ornithological interest, for few had ever seen one of these birds alive. While in my care it was given one House Sparrow daily. On two occasions it was offered a choice between a sparrow and a mouse. Both times, to my surprise, it spurned fur in favour of feathers. It seemed to be in perfect physical condition, always evincing a markedly friendly interest bordering on excitement when I approached. It was kept in a large, roomy cage, replete with two spruce stumps, which it flew between and perched upon. Late in the summer it became listless. I often found it sitting on the floor rather than on its tree stump. Sometimes the sparrow was only partly devoured. On the morning of 13 October it showed only slight interest in its daily offering; late that afternoon I found it dead. A post-mortem revealed nothing except that it was a female, which I had always suspected because of its large size. Whence it came to Sable Island and how the long flight of 150 km or more was accomplished, and ever undertaken in the first place, will never be revealed, but one can theorize that while foraging along a coastal woodland at night it was blown offshore by heavy winds. Owls are not particularly strong fliers. Unable to return to land it had been carried off helplessly and, lured by the gleaming beacon of Sable Island, had steered its course in that direction.