We found a barred owl sitting on the ground in the woods. One of its eyes was injured. We took it to a professor we knew who specialized in birds/raptors. He said that a raptor who is even slightly injured just shuts down and will not fly. He kept the owl and let it heal and released it.
We have a barred owl that flies through our backyard pretty much every evening at dusk. Sometimes we’re sitting on the deck and I play my phone app for it and it responds. Don’t do this during nesting season but this time of year, “its a hoot.”
I do a pretty good Hoot impression myself, we have plenty of owls in this area and I get them to answer most every time. Mating season hoots is a whole nother matter, they can get quite radical with their sounds.
I too, have found Barred owls to be quite people-friendly. One used to sit in the big tree just above a bird feeder and I explained to him that the kitty was MINE. But he could have all the mice and voles that come for the spilled bird seed.
Must have been agreeable because the kitty sat on the rail and watched but was never harmed.
Also the tiny Saw-whet. They like to some and “talk” to me as I work in the yard and garden in the evening.