In Your Face

Barred owls can be primarily in the eastern US and southern part of Canada.  More recently they have expanded their territory to southwest Canada, Oregon, Washington state and northern california primarily because of changes to the landscape.

As you can see the barred owl has a large round head with a face that is grayish-brown.  

These birds can be very aggressive if you intrude on their territory especially when they are breeding.  

In our case, their was a breeding pair set back in their nesting area and when they flew out, they came directly at us in the boat at about 30mph.

Although they cannot kill humans (thankfully) when provoked they will attack. Given that their talons can due severe damage and lead to major cuts and bleeding it is best to use caution when you here them hooting loudly.