I know barred owls are pretty hard to tell apart, but if anyone is good with owls I would love it if you could help me! There’s this barred owl in my backyard, it’s been there for a few months and I’ve been assuming that it’s female for a while, but I want to be sure.
Here are some pictures:
This search gives Barred Owl observations that include the word “female”:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?q=female&subview=map&taxon_id=19893&view=identifiers
I suggest tagging some of the observers/identifiers/annotators from those observations on your observation with this question.
Do you have a photo where the owl is relaxed and perched straight? Can you duplicate that image from the same location where you were standing using the same lens focal length? If so, put an object that you can measure where the owl was in the original photo and take another photo. Then, you can get an idea of its height. It may not be definitive because the sexes can be similar in size. But it might give you an idea for height.
In my experiences, a female is noticably taller than she is wide compared to a male. But, I cannot tell from these photos. Pressed, I would say that this is a female from the second image.
Females are roughly 20–24 inches, while males are 17–20 inches.
Beautiful photography
