Minoh’s feathery family—Owls at Goaza Jinja Shrine

Near the mountains of Minoh, there’s a shrine where an owl family builds its nest each and every year. The shrine is called Goaza Jinja (五字神社) and it’s located near the residential neighborhood Aodani-nishi 3-chome.


▲Trees where owls nest near Goaza Jinja’s worship hall

This year. there were 4 owlets that emerged from the nest in mid-July. They spend their time high up in the tree, so they’re not easy to spot. But if you’re lucky, you can see all 4 owlets sitting in a row or the comings and goings of 2 owl parents caring for their young.

These owls are northern boobooks, a common species native to Asia that breeds in Japan, China, and Korea before migrating South to The Philipines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan where they overwinter. This means they cross thousands of kilometers in order to migrate between their nesting grounds and winter habitats. Pretty impressive!

▲Owl at Goaza Jinja, summer 2019

For at least a decade, the owls have been coming here, all the way from their tropical winter homes to raise their babies. They arrive to the shrine grounds in late May and remain here until the August Obon holidays are over, when the entire family flies south.

Goaza Jinja is an uninhabited shrine venerating a local deity in the former village of Ao. The shrine’s torii faces the street and there are supermarkets on either side of the shrine. So foot traffic is not uncommon on shrine grounds, but nevertheless the owls come here to roost. Perhaps the owls were born here and remember the location. Or it could be that the same pair of birds return to this same spot every spring.

I spoke with a local bird-watcher who told me that there are approximately 2–3 owlets born every year, but this year there were 4 owlets born and raised at the shrine. When the baby owls emerge from the nest they line up on the tree branch in order. (It’s hard to believe they really stand in a specific order, but maybe it’s true.) The father owl perches in a nearby tree to keep watch for crows and other predators while the mother stays close to the owlets. Then, as summer draws to an end, the entire family migrates south together. They don’t depart directly from the shrine, but first teach the young to fly long distances in the mountains of Minoh before setting off on their journey.
▲The four young owls perched together July 29, 2021