The Great Horned Owl doesn’t build its own nest, but instead occupies the nests of other large birds, such as herons or raptors. In Virginia, this owl starts its nesting very early in the year, laying its eggs in January or February. It is a large brown-colored bird with two ear tufts (also called horns) and big yellow eyes. With a wingspan up to 4 feet, the Great Horned Owl is the largest owl species breeding in Virginia. (Recording source: Christopher McPherson, XC691461, The sound recording above is of the territorial song of a Great Horned Owl, which can be heard from both males and females.

Now let’s dive in and listen to the calls and sounds of these owls: Great Horned Owl This is extremely helpful if you want to identify Virginia owls.Īnd while most of these owls are regular birds in Virginia, the last species on the list are vagrants that only rarely occur in the state. What sounds do Virginia owls make?īelow we’ve uploaded the sounds of the 7 types of owls found in Virginia:īy learning to recognize their call, you can identify these owls even if it’s hard to see them in the dark of night. To help you identify the owl you heard, we’ll cover the most common owl sounds of Virginia in this article. Identifying owl calls in the Old Dominion State is not as easy as it might seem, since there are many owls species in Virginia. Did you recently hear an owl sound in Virginia, and want to know what species it was?

Saw whet owl call