My son found this feather in our yard this morning. I’m curious what kind of bird it might have come from. This was found in the suburbs west of St. Louis.
Several birds of prey have similar feathers. Yours resembles barred owl feathers, but it might be from some other bird of prey. Luckily, this forum is moderated by an ornithologist. Calling Colibri!
Yes, it looks to me like a secondary wing feather of a Barred Owl.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Feather Identification Atlas is a great resource for this.
If you have conifers in your yard or nearby you might look to see if it has a day roost there.
Just be careful showing it to any federal agents…
I’m going to guessRed Tailed Hawk.
I considered Red-tailed Hawk as being more common, but the pattern doesn’t match. Red-tailed Hawk lacks the spots on the leading edge of the feather.
Thanks for the link, Colibri. Bookmarked!
Regarding the federal agents, I don’t think anyone has gotten into trouble for possessing a single feather of a common species, but all birds of prey are protected in the US and selling feathers will get attention.
On a snake-hunting trip in Georgia years ago, I encountered a freshly killed barred owl on a two-lane rural road. They have a bad habit of eating where they kill or scavenge; I have seen them standing in the middle of a road many times. Anyway, my wife loved owls, I thought it would be cool to have it stuffed, so I called a taxidermist I knew back home. He told me to get the owl out of my possession as quickly and quietly as I could, and for damned sure not to bring it to his shop. I later read the rules about mounted birds of prey. It’s nearly impossible for an individual to have a stuffed bird of prey legally.
My post was somewhat in jest. I agree that a single feather is unlikely to trigger any repercussions. But my experience has been that relatively few folk are aware of the laws re: migratory/prey birds.
Slight hijack, but speaking of barred owls…
Our neighbor has a webcam placed in his owl box.
https://video.nest.com/live/dd4R1DFRqg
The adult owl has been standing quite still in there for days but now he/she can’t get any rest. The little owlets are growing up.
That answer took 13 whole minutes, and another 12 for the confirmation from a subject matter expert! You guys are slipping!
Seriously, that’s awesome. Thanks so much. This morning I looked at a few hawk/eagle/etc., feathers online and didn’t see one that matched. After I posted this thread, I thought maybe it was an owl. I’ve never heard of a barred owl before, though, so my research would probably have run into a quick halt at that point.
That feather identification atlas looks pretty cool. Thanks.
I did suggest to our afternoon babysitter that she take my son to the library and see if they could identify the bird. My little guy is only 6 and we haven’t done much internet research with him. I figured going and asking the librarian for help and trying to match up to pictures in a book would be more of an adventure anyway. Hopefully the feds won’t cuff him.
That’s one you should know (not scolding you that you don’t already, just saying that if you want to know about birds, that’s one of the first ones to learn). The barred owl makes the famous “who cooks for you” sound. I conservatively estimate that 99% of the time that I hear an owl, it’s a barred owl (I’m in the Dallas area).