After weeks of watching the Barred Owl in Central Park, I’m finally seeing patterns of behavior.

Before fly out, the owl takes a few steps west on its roost perch, so it has room to stretch. It does at least two cycles of one wing down, both wings back, and the other wing down. It might cough up a pellet before fly out too, as it did tonight. It then takes one more step, defecates and then flies out.

The post fly outs seem to fall into three categories, patrolling for intruders (Cooper’s Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks or other Barred Owls), hunting near the roost site based on what it observed during the day, and long treks near the water.

Tonight it was a long trek, with a short stop near the roost site, and then a stop about 100 yards west, with an interaction with a noisy Cooper’s Hawk. The exchange only lasted a few minutes and the owl then relaxed before working the shoreline of a waterway in the park for about 400 yards, perching only a few feet off the ground in about four stops, except for a high branch in an attempt to get a squirrel.