Date: Sat, 9 Feb 2002 13:49:38 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: David Mozurkewich Subject: Great Horned Owls in Odenton In-Reply-To: <94.212ec5e5.29960b09@aol.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Jim, Thank you for the extensive list of references on Great Horned Owl vocalizations that all seem to indicate that it is indeed the male with the lower voice. I was horrified by the thought that after all these years, you were still misidentifying one of our common birds. I based my claim that females have the lower voice on three lines of evidence: 1) Rumors. I heard a number of otherwise knowledgeable birders make this claim over the years. 2) Observations similar to those reported by Pete Webb. Although it seems reasonable that in the duet, it is the female responding to the male, I am apparently wrong. Does anyone know who responds to whom in other species of birds that duet? 3) Published account. Lacking Jim's extensive bird reference library, I relied on Peterson's old field guides. Although currently out of style, they are still very good at the task for which they were intended: identifying the common birds within range. Peterson claimed the female has the lower voice. So it seems the literature is contradictory. Granted, Peterson is not a primary reference. But I wonder if the others are truly independent, or if the more recent authors were influenced by Bent's ASSUMPTION that it is the male with the lower voice. And one of the quotes claiming the female has the higher pitched voice seems a bit inconsistent > "Vocalizations are varied and difficult to characterize. Number of > syllables varies, even for a single individual. Male vocalizations are > more elaborate, more prolonged, richer, deeper, and more mellow than > those of female (Austing and Holt 1966)." But isn't it the higher pitched bird -- at least in this part of its range -- that has the more elaborate and prolonged call? Still confused, Dave David Mozurkewich Seabrook, PG MD USA mozurk @ bellAtlantic.net ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================