Are You Hearing Illinois’ Owls? Here’s Why They’re Loud Lately

I've been hearing them at home in my neighborhood, and I've been hearing them around the property where our radio stations are located, even on our towers. At first, I thought it might just be me, but I've been told by several people with similar experiences that hooting owls at night in Illinois right now is a real thing.

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.

So, how many owls does our state have? 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.

There's also the American Barn Owl.

The Barred Owl.

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

The Long-Eared Owl.

The Short-Eared Owl.

The Northern Saw-Whet Owl.

The Snowy Owl.

And, The Northern Hawk Owl.

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.