Animal Sciences Commons^™

Social Behavior Of North American Owls, Paul A. Johnsgard

Paul Johnsgard Collection

Social behaviors in animals include a very wide range of interindividual communications, both within and between species. They include such rather generalized social responses as social flocking or roosting behavior, as well as much more individualized and complex interactions such as courtship, aggression, and parental behaviors. Regardless of their complexity, social interactions involve some level of communication or the transmission and interpretation of social signals. These signals can be transmitted in any of several sensory channels, which in owls are most likely to include visual, acoustic, and tactile modes of communication.

Most and perhaps all owls show distinctive postures when …