Scavenging by a Barred Owl in Northern Georgia

Jenna B. Myers¹ and Michael J. Bender^1,*

¹University of North Georgia, 3820 Mundy Mill Road, Oakwood, GA, 30542. *Corresponding author.

Southeastern Naturalist, Volume 21, Issue 4 (2022): N53–N57

Abstract
Scavenging by owls is rarely documented, and fidelity to a scavenged carcass is even less common. Herein we describe multiple visits by presumably the same Strix varia (Barred Owl) to a carcass over 4 consecutive nights during the breeding season. Our observations demonstrate higher site-fidelity than is typically reported for owls and suggest that opportunistic scavenging may occasionally represent a low-cost means of meeting energetic demands with potentially important consequences for individual survival during nesting.

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