Focus on Nature: Arizona's Spotted Owl

A Threatened Treasure

Text and Photographs by Robin Silver Feel the cathedral-like reverence inspired by the ancient trees. Listen to myriad sounds softened by the sweet-smelling earth. This is no ordinary place. This is old-growth forest-uncut, peaceful, home to the Mexican spotted owl. Suddenly you feel watched. A silent, elf-like apparition takes shape in the shadowy foreground. Yes: a spotted owl, its deep brown eyes inquisitive and searching.

Dark eyes are uncommon among owls in North America, all others but the barn, barred, and flammulated owls have yellow eyes. The spotted owl is rare in other ways, too. It is not known to migrate; yet it has appeared in every life zone in Arizona from Lower Sonoran (near Tucson) to Canadian (in the San Francisco Peaks). Despite this versatility, you can expect to find it in few places. The subspecies that occurs in Arizona, Strix occidentalis lucida or the Mexican spotted owl, requires a habitat of established, mature forests. But fine woodlands

FOCUS on Nature

of mesquite, pine, and cottonwood are disappearing; without such homes, the owls themselves are disappearing. Only an estimated 500 survive in Arizona-and 55 percent of these are said to be living in forests now being logged.

Russell P. Balda and Joseph L. Ganey, Northern Arizona University biologists and two of the world's most widely recognized spotted owl authorities, have warned that unless the birds' needs are fully known and taken into consideration in decisions about forest management, "the loss of habitat through harvesting of old-growth timber could result in the total loss of the Mexican spotted owl in wide areas of present inhabitation."

Spotted owls usually nest in abandoned raven or hawk nests located in tree cavities or canyon-wall caves. They lay two or three eggs in April; successful fledglings grow into 16to 19-inch-high adults with 45-inch wingspans. Their benign appearance belies their predatory nature-they like to eat bats, insects, rodents, and other small owls. Their song has been compared to the baying of a hound, and they can utter an ascending whistle that sounds much like a siren.

One of the largest populations of spotted owls resides in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, which contains our state's largest surviving section of old-growth woodland. After two of the residents fledged this season, my camera and I witnessed their growth. The photographs on these pages, I believe, capture some of their endearing qualities.