What kind of owl is this? *photo*

[shelleyd2008]

I still don't think this is a screech owl, it is simply too big. I've seen screech owls here and they aren't any bigger than my pigeons. The OP said this owl was about 12" tall, almost twice as big as a screech.

 

[duckinnut]

Quote:
Did you happen to ask him how licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie roll tootsie pop?

 

[gophert]

Really, it's a screech owl. I double-checked with my husband, who has been an obsessive birder for 20-some years, leads Audubon field trips, and is pretty well-known in our area as an expert on birds. It's easy to guess wrong at a bird's size in the field.

 

[Tracydr]

Quote:
I always wondered what those tiny owls were. We found an injured one when heading out on a trail ride. Had a bad wing. Put it in a box, planning to take it to a rescue when we got home. It was gone when we returned from our ride, had lifted the lid.
He was the cutest little thing, unfortunate that he probably didn't survive.

 

[LadyinRed]

12 inches is WAAAAY to long for a little eastern screech, for size comparison eastern screech owls are little bigger than a cockatiel and far shorter. Little plumper though. I had a little male red morph screech brought to me after it was hit by a car, they are nice little guys but they are tiny. Looks much more like a long-eared owl with all that mottling in its colors, little easterns are a little bit more solid.

 

[desertdarlene]

I'm fairly certain that's a long-eared owl. He's too big to be a screech owl, plus his tufts are longer.

 

[D'Angelo N Va.]

It's so cool. I see owls in the woods and hear them. I keep trying to entice them to live in my barn.

 

[gophert]

Seriously. It's a screech owl. Screeches are 8.5" high and long-eareds are 15", so 12" actually is right about in the middle. The OP is off either way (it's very easy to be off about a bird's size--no insult intended).

You can tell it's a screech by the body proportions and the face. It does not have the large, tawny, clearly delineated facial disk of a long-eared owl.

Compare the original's ear tufts:

to this screech..similar (also note the identical feather patterns on the "nose" area)

compare the original's body proportions, particularly head to body and length of torso, to this eastern screech:

and then this long-eared: