Using owl sounds to attract song-birds

I am sorry to bring up yet another possibly controversial practice to attact birds nearby, when in the field. . . making owl sounds or using owl tapes to attract certain song birds.

An editor working on my brief article on bird photography basics just raised this topic for unknown reasons. My only knowledge of it is in a wildlife photography book I have at home. I actually tried it once in gray jay territory with no luck. I do a poor barred owl imitation!

I can surmise that there might be some issue with this as well? Making birds move off their nest, etc? If this is the case, i would guess that pishing in the woods is now controversial as well.

Well, to stay on my topic . . .is the use of owl sounds and tapes an acceptable practice for bird photography? Thanks.

I won't surmise as to whether it is acceptable or not, as I really don't have an opinion either way. There are merits to both sides of the argument. I will say that, in central/south America, Owl calls are often used to keep mixed tanager flocks together, and often used to attract attention of birds when things are quiet. Down there, mostly what are used are pygmy-owl calls...Cloud Forest Pygmy-Owl in Ecuador, Amazonian Pygmy-Owl in Brazil where I was...

There have been plenty of studies which have shown things such as pishing and judicious use of tapes/cd's causes little to zero disturbance on birds. However there is definitely a fine line between judicious and over-zealous. Sitting in one spot repeatedly playing a song to lure out a bird for extended lengthy periods of time is most likely not appropriate.

I personally do a very poor saw-whet owl/pygmy-owl immitation and occasionally use it to get a birds attention. I also do a poor Golden-headed Quetzal immitation, but that doesn't get anythings attention

Here we go... Isn't feding of Eagles enough controversy

forget it . . . I convinced the editor to skip this topic.

I had no idea birds would be attracted to any sounds of an owl?
If it doesnt hurt the birds, I'd use it.

Campbell wrote:I had no idea birds would be attracted to any sounds of an owl?
If it doesnt hurt the birds, I'd use it.

It is especially useful in the tropics. Most tanagers and other passerines will mob any sort of Pygmy-Owl they find, and I believe the Pygmy-Owls, at least sometimes, dine on other birds. Thus playing a tape of a Cloud-forest Pygmy-Owl in Ecuador, for example, produces some interesting results (a lot of pissed off Tanagers if you are in the middle of a mixed flock).

Its actually expressly forbidden in many refuges.

What if you used a fish to lure a mouse to make a sound to attract an owl to make noise that attracts other birds??

Mark wrote:What if you used a fish to lure a mouse to make a sound to attract an owl to make noise that attracts other birds??

If you did that, then a hungry Eagle that stopped getting fed in Homer would have to attack you

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Mark wrote:What if you used a fish to lure a mouse to make a sound to attract an owl to make noise that attracts other birds??

If you did that, then a hungry Eagle that stopped getting fed in Homer would have to attack you

Can't remember the last time I've laughed this hard
Thanks! E.J & Mark.

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Mark wrote:What if you used a fish to lure a mouse to make a sound to attract an owl to make noise that attracts other birds??

If you did that, then a hungry Eagle that stopped getting fed in Homer would have to attack you

Well, that eagle could eat the birds that were attracted by the owl.

I have no reason to think why using owl callings to attract birds should be more effective in the tropics?...
In the tropics, many people who use this practice are tourist operators who are mostly concerned in satisfying their customer demands.
As others already mention, it may have a negative impact, or may not depending on the situation. Since I believe that most photographers aren't prepared to accurately access the impact, I wouldn't recommend this practice. In our business I think that the precaution principle is mandatory: If you aren't sure, don't do it.

As a general rule, luring wildlife has in my opinion always some impact (that can be acceptable or not, depending on the situation). What I find very disturbing (from what I've saw int the Homer thread) is that there are many people who obviously don't know much about ecology, but feel comfortable expressing very definite opinions. Personally I've worked professionally in ornithology, and yet I'm not sure about the impact of using owl callings or feeding eagles, and that is why I think that those decisions should be left for real specialists (independently from the photographic potential).

Alexandre Vaz wrote:I have no reason to think why using owl callings to attract birds should be more effective in the tropics?...
In the tropics, many people who use this practice are tourist operators who are mostly concerned in satisfying their customer demands.

Many of the people in the tropics who use this are also birding guides. I imagine it works in the tropics because there are more owl species that possibly prey on birds or are a threat to birds. Who knows. Was just speaking from experiences i've had on birding trips with various guides. I've not seen it used in the US much. Personally i've not tried it.

Jeff,

It sounds like your interest in the subject has waned, but since I have pretty strong feelings and quite a bit of experience with luring birds with owl tapes, I thought I'd throw in my opinion.

I can't speak to the effectiveness or impact of owl tapes anywhere other than the eastern U.S., but since the behavior owl tapes elicit (mobbing) is incredibly widespread in birds throughout the world, I suspect that the basics of the behavior are pretty similar in most instances.

Response to owl tapes by mobbing birds is an entirely different phenomenon than response of territorial males to a taped song from another male. Mobbing, in my experience, is something of a "luxury" activity to the birds that do it. In most cases, the predator being mobbed poses relatively little immediate risk of predation to the birds doing the mobbing. An owl found in the open during daytime is an obvious example; the chances of the mobbing birds being preyed upon by that owl before nightfall are probably minuscule. Even in mobbing of diurnal predators such as hawks, the behavior is typically limited to situations where the hawk is an ambush hunter and is no real threat to capture a bird that is aware of its presence (crows mobbing a Buteo, for example). It therefore seems that mobbing behavior has evolved so that most birds will only spend much time and energy engaging in the behavior when their other basic biological needs are met. In my experience, mobbing response to owl tapes drops off significantly when other physiological needs (such as food acquisition, territorial defense, nesting) are more pressing. Cold, inclement weather, windy conditions, etc. often cause mobbing response to shut down entirely. Many birds that respond vigorously at one time of year (wrens, titmice, cardinals, etc.) completely ignore an owl tape once the breeding season begins, unless the presumptive owl is relatively close to the nest location.

Further, mobbing behavior, when it occurs, is self-limiting. The birds simply give up their investigation of an owl call within a few minutes of discovering there is no owl present, and drift off to continue doing what they were previously doing. Those same birds can't be reattracted immediately, suggesting that the potential for seriously affecting a particular bird's time/energy budget is nil. In this respect, it differs tremendously from playing taped songs to a territorial male, who will in some cases continue responding and searching for the rival male for hours at a time. This can certainly adversely impact the responding male's potential reproductive success.

Because of its ability to coax sometimes shy or cryptic birds out of cover for brief periods of time, field ornithologists have only recently begun using owl vocalizations as an adjunct to other field censusing techniques for measuring bird populations, and there is a growing scientific literature on the subject. None of the literature to date suggests any adverse effects of the practice.

Several years ago I wrote an article on the use of owl tapes for bird photography for one of the other Nature Photo sites. This can be accessed at

http://www.naturephotographers.net/pm0101-1.html

if you'd like more information. In that article, I explicitly discussed the ethical aspects of owl tape use. As E.J. correctly points out, the use of any recorded vocalizations to attract wildlife is forbidden in many national parks and public lands. I'm not sure how that regulation applies to the production of pishing sounds or whistled imitations of a screech owl call, though, which elicit the same behavior and can be nearly as effective as using a tape.

How's that for bloviation?

In ADVANCED BIRD PHOTOGRAPHY By Leonard Lee Rue III, he shows the utility of playing a screech owl tape to lure birds into a prepared perch. However, his prepared perch was a far cry from an Alan Murphy perch

I have lead birding groups for the local Audubon chapter for 20+ years. I am able to imitate the calls of the eastern screech owl and I use these calls to attract the birds for observation. It works like a charm and after a few minutes we move on. I would think that using it long enough to get a few photos would be ok but I can image a person sitting there running it for an extended period of time that would most definitely affect the bird's wellbeing. There is indeed a fine line between appropriate use and over doing it.

Peter May wrote:As E.J. correctly points out, the use of any recorded vocalizations to attract wildlife is forbidden in many national parks and public lands. I'm not sure how that regulation applies to the production of pishing sounds or whistled imitations of a screech owl call, though, which elicit the same behavior and can be nearly as effective as using a tape.

I can't say anything about the rules in the US, but in the Mountain Parks Guide (for Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, Yoho, Glacier and Mount Revelstoke National Parks here in Canada), it says: "It is against the law to touch, entice, disturb or otherwise harass any wild animals big or small." I don't know how the actual law is worded, but clearly (to me, anyway), making noise to attract a bird is enticing, and is therefore illegal, regardless of whether the noise is made by a tape or by a person.

Defining "disturb" may be difficult--that was covered in a different thread--but the definition of "entice" seems pretty clear to me. Okay, I don't know if a noise which only gets an animal to turn its head but not come closer is enticing or disturbing, but I would certainly consider making any noise intended to make a bird or animal come closer to be enticing and therefore illegal in the parks.

-Paul

How is this any different from what birders call Pishing to draw out birds from hidden areas?

Some books refer to this sound as imitating an owl, in any event, pishing is commonly used by birders...

What Peter had to say is the most sensible summary I have read on the subject! Thanks Peter for the education!

Mark wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Mark wrote:What if you used a fish to lure a mouse to make a sound to attract an owl to make noise that attracts other birds??

If you did that, then a hungry Eagle that stopped getting fed in Homer would have to attack you

Well, that eagle could eat the birds that were attracted by the owl.

you guys are going nuts ..

Greg Downing wrote:What Peter had to say is the most sensible summary I have read on the subject! Thanks Peter for the education!

I second that!