Why Do Owls Hoot? Owl Calls and the Twit-Twoo Myth

Hooting as a territorial song

For an owl, a hoot does the same job that a song does for a robin or a blackbird. Most owls live in fixed territories that they defend all year, and the hoot is the main way of saying “this patch is occupied”. Rivals that hear a resident owl calling usually keep their distance, so hooting helps avoid real fights.

Owls are active in the dark, when they cannot rely on visual displays, so sound is their best tool. Low-pitched hoots travel well through woodland, because deep sounds are less easily blocked and scattered by trunks and leaves than high ones. On a calm night, the hoots of a tawny owl or great horned owl can carry for hundreds of meters through the trees.

Owls produce hoots with the syrinx, the voice box of birds, located where the windpipe divides into the lungs. Many species puff out their throat when calling; in the great horned owl, a white patch of throat feathers swells and flashes with each hoot, which may also act as a visual signal at dusk.

Keeping in touch with a mate

Many owls form long-term pairs, and calling keeps the pair together. In the breeding season, a male hooting near a nest site advertises it to the female, and the pair often call back and forth in a duet. Later, the male calls when he brings food to the female sitting on the eggs.

The great horned owl is a well-known duetter. Its deep, soft hoot comes in a rhythm of four or five notes, and partners answer each other through the long winter nights. The female’s voice is noticeably higher than the male’s, even though she is the larger bird, so a duet is easy to pick out. Because great horned owls nest so early, often laying eggs in January or February, their hooting peaks in late fall and winter. Their nesting season is explained in when do great horned owls nest?.

The tawny owl and the twit-twoo myth

In Britain and much of Europe, the classic owl call is “twit-twoo”, made famous in nursery rhymes and in a winter song in Shakespeare’s play Love’s Labour’s Lost, where the owl sings “tu-whit, tu-who”. The bird behind it is the tawny owl, the commonest owl in much of Europe.

In reality, the twit-twoo is not a single call from one owl. The “twit” is a sharp, shrill “kee-wick”, most often given by the female as a contact call. The “twoo” is the male’s territorial song, a long, wavering hoot often written as “hoo… hu, hu-hu-hu-hooo”. When the two are heard together, it is usually a pair calling to each other, or sometimes two neighboring owls.

Tawny owls are especially noisy in autumn, when young birds look for territories of their own and established pairs defend theirs, and again in late winter as the breeding season starts. Both sexes can hoot, though the female’s hoot is usually wavier and less clear than the male’s.

Do all owls hoot?

Not all owls hoot. The word “hoot” fits many owls in the family Strigidae, the “typical owls”, but others use very different sounds:

Barn owls, which belong to a separate family, the Tytonidae, never hoot at all. Their main call is a long, rasping shriek, described in what does a barn owl sound like?.

Other owl sounds and what they mean

Hoots are only part of an owl’s vocabulary. Many owls give alarm calls, barks or screams when a predator or person comes near the nest. Hungry young owls beg with wheezy, hissing calls that can be heard on summer nights, and some species snap their bills loudly as a warning.

Owls also make sounds during courtship that are softer than their territorial calls, such as twittering, purring or low cooing near the nest. Male short-eared and long-eared owls also clap their wings together in flight as part of a courtship display.

When and where you are most likely to hear owls

In Europe and North America, the best time to hear owls is on calm, dry nights from October to March, especially in the first hours after dusk and before dawn. Rain and wind reduce calling, partly because they also make hunting by sound harder.

Woods, parks, cemeteries and wooded suburbs are good places to listen. In the UK, the tawny owl is the owl you are most likely to hear, as described in owls in the UK. In North America, great horned owls, barred owls and screech-owls are the commonest night callers.

Myths about owl hoots

Myth: a hooting owl is a sign of death. In many cultures owl calls were linked to bad luck or death. In fact, a hooting owl is simply defending its territory or calling to its mate.

Myth: twit-twoo is the call of one owl. It is usually two tawny owls answering each other, most often a female and a male.

Fact: every owl has its own voice. Studies of several species, including tawny owls, have shown that individual owls have distinctive calls that researchers can use to tell them apart, and in some species territory holders react more strongly to strangers than to familiar neighbors.