Owls of Ohio - Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Like the Northern hawk owl and great gray owl, thisis another boreal species that occasionally stages winterirruptions into the northern U.S. The boreal owl is in the samegenus as the Northern saw-whet owl, and like that species itis strictly nocturnal and very hard to discover in its roostinghaunts during the day. Chances are great that any borealowls appearing in Ohio would go undetected. The one Ohiorecord, from 1997 in Lake County, resulted from a bird beingfound that had struck a window. After being rehabilitated, itwas released.Incredible as it seems, there are two Ohio records of thiscurious owl that normally does not occur anywhere nearhere. However, burrowing owls are very migratory, and dooccasionally appear far beyond their normal range. The tworecords date from 1944 and 1981, in Paulding and Ottawacounties, respectively. It is not inconceivable that anothercould appear in Ohio.R A R E O H I O O W L S 49Range acrossNorth AmericaBreedingWinteringYear-roundRange acrossNorth AmericaBreedingWinteringYear-round