Barred Owls Dangerous to Cats?

[Dacatchair]

From what I have read, the cat remains people find in bald eagles nests are most likely roadkill, and once roadkill has dried or lost some innards, it probably weighs a lot less than it did when it was alive. I read a story about the eagle managing to carry a 12 lb stick somewhere on the internet, and it was one experts opinion that as eagles can't normally lift anywhere close to that much, it was probably a situation where the stick was grabbed somewhere high, like on a mountain side, or from a tree, and then just guided down. But talking to local vets is probably the best idea, as animals can learn new behavior, and in some areas birds of prey may have learned to see some cats as a potential meal.

Eagles or hawks or owls will attack anything they feel is threat to their babies!

 

[choppedcowbird]

Barred owls only weigh about 2 pounds. Birds can only lift slightly over their own body weight. So they can't swoop off with an adult cat. And, as mentioned, cat saliva will kill a bird from infection, so they generally don't want to mess with cats. Although owls aren't very smart, are very territorial, and sometimes attack animals too large for them. But not very often. There are 80 bazillion dangers to outdoor cats and owls are pretty low on the list.

I awakened 3 o'clock this morning to the very loud hooting of a couple of my huge local barred owls right next to my house in a large Burr oak tree. Our cats large tube house is up in a shelf on the covered porch. They couldn't have been gathering over a mouse or shrew surely! I went out in the front waving arms and telling them to leave and it worked well. I assume Smokey the grey has been a bit more active during this warm spell or maybe I should stop calling them if I dont have a mouse for them! Dumb! Perhaps they hear mice forging under the leaves.

 

[catapault]

Or it might be mating season for the owls

 

[KittyCat_chitchat]

Or it might be mating season for the owls

We're in the middle of their breeding season right now. They will be very vocal. I live in rural Scotland and we don't get barred owls, but we have a similar species called tawny owls. I have before now heard them hooting to each other really close to the house, probably in the trees in our garden if not actually on the roof. We get owl chatter again in summer when the owlets leave the nest and are branching, but still calling to their parents for food.

So it's very likely that you interrupted an owl date, and very unlikely that these owls were after your cat. Barred owls are primarily rodent specialists. A healthy adult cat is probably too heavy for them and not something they're going to want to tangle with.

They can be highly territorial, but while you do hear horror stories of tawny and barred owls doing serious damage to people, it's VERY RARE and only when the person has gone right up to the nest and disturbed the owl suddenly. They're way more likely just to divebomb animals passing through. They don't want to pick a fight and possibly get injured if they can avoid that by just chasing the offending animal off. And any cat outside-savvy enough to climb up to where barred owls would typically nest would probably have the sense to get out of there as soon as the owls started getting defensive.

I hope this helps put your mind at ease.