Bm. Appleby et Sm. Redpath, VARIATION IN THE MALE TERRITORIAL HOOT OF THE TAWNY OWL STRIX-ALUCO IN 3 ENGLISH POPULATIONS, Ibis, 139(1), 1997, pp. 152-158
Little is known about owl song. We made sonagrams of the territorial c
alls of 50 male Tawny Owls Strix aluco from three different areas. Six
temporal and four frequency measures of the calls were recorded from
the sonagrams, The measures of the calls were then subjected to analys
is to try to separate between individual owls and between owls from di
fferent areas. We also looked for similarities between calls of neighb
ouring owls and for any effect of habitat on owl hoots. Individual owl
s were separated on the basis of their hoots with a high degree of suc
cess (98.6% overall), and there were significant differences between a
reas. Differences were found between calls in woodland and farmland ha
bitats, but these differences were not in the direction expected to in
crease sound transmission, Calls of neighbouring owls did not resemble
each other more than calls from owls that were not in vocal contact,
implying that if calls are learned by Tawny Owls, they are learned bef
ore dispersal.