Illinois’ Owls Are Active & Hooting At Night Now, Here’s Why

I'll make no secret of the fact that I absolutely love owls. Always have, beginning with moving into a neighborhood that bordered a decently-sized forest when I was a kid.

Since our neighborhood had no streetlights and thousands of mature trees, hearing owls hooting at night was a very common occurrence, even though it totally freaked me out at first.

Here in Illinois, we've got 9 of the 19 total species of owls that can be found throughout the United States, so we've got quite a population of different types of owls:

Let's start with my personal favorite, the Great Horned Owl.

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There's also the American Barn Owl.

Barn owl perched on a limb at the World Bird Sanctuary. Such a beautiful bird.

Barn Owl Perched in Rafters of Farm Barn

The Barred Owl.

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A majestic barred owl landing on a wooden post at night

The Eastern Screech Owl (they always look so cranky).

Eastern Screech Owl perching on a mossy log.

...to very cranky. (Getty Images)

The Long-Eared Owl.

Long-eared owl (Asio otus), Dobrich Province, Bulgaria

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The Short-Eared Owl.

Short-eared Owl taken in southern MN under controlled conditions.

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The Northern Saw-Whet Owl.

Northern Saw Whet Owl perched on mossy log.

This Saw Whet Owl is perched on a tree with green foliage surrounding it.

The Snowy Owl.

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Snowy owl looking

And, The Northern Hawk Owl.

Perched in a tree.

Northern hawk-owl (Surnia ulula) looking out of a tree hollow.

Which Brings Us Back To Why We're Hearing So Much Hooting From Illinois Owls Right Now, And The Great Horned Owl In Particular

We've got a particularly vocal Great Horned Owl that favors the tallest of our radio station's three towers. I've been greeted by its hooting just about every day for the past couple of weeks, which struck me as strange since I haven't heard it all year so far. There's another one in my neighborhood a couple of houses away from mine that's behaving the same way.

So what's going on? As usual, it all breaks down to sex.

Illinois' Great Horned Owls are looking for companionship, and they're going to keep hooting up a storm until they find themselves a mate...which can take a while sometimes. They're also hooting to let rival owls know that this is their territory, so back off.

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Humorous image of two Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) talking.