What kind of owl is this? *photo*

[littleoak]

Enjoyed the story about life changing events after seeing owls. Usually an owl in my yard has a lfe changing event.

 

[lovin my birds]

Definately a screech owl. See the little tuffs of feathers on his face good sign of a screech. I have two pairs that nest near my house. A pair in the back woods and a pair in the front. The long eared owl doesnt have the little tuffs on its face. They are beautiful and so very lovely to listen to. Mine yell at each other every night. Its an amazing gift to have seen one. In the 4 years that I have lived here I have only seen mine a few times. They hide very well.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I still say it's a long-eared owl, if you look at the picture posted by the OP you can see the top of the ear. The 'ears' appear to be as long as the height of the bird's head.

 

[shelleyd2008]

I hope the OP doesn't mind, but I downloaded the pic so I could draw on it

Here is the original:

And here it is with the 'ear' outlined:

For reference, here is the picture on the site I posted in post #2 of a long-eared owl:

I didn't download the pictures of the Screech owls, but none of them have 'ears' like that. Plus, if you look at the last pic I posted and compare it to the first, the bird the OP posted has the same pattern on the breast as the third picture.

 

[ll]

I don't mind at all

and yes those are exactly the way the ears were. Thank you!
The owl has not been back to the tree, probably because we stared at it 1/2 the afternoon and took photos.
I did think it was him circling our house one day, late morning, but it must have been a hawk because aren't owls sleeping during the day?
Night Eagle =

I love the owl posts, thanks so much for sharing.

 

[gophert]

That's a screech owl. I used to work at a raptor center that housed both screech owls and long-eareds.

They are out during the day sometimes. Does not indicate disease. Also, I really seriously doubt they would ever take a chicken. Way too small. A chick, maybe.

 

[ll]

Thank you for the info gophert, very much!

 

[Mrsfoote]

Lol Not to damper the mood at all my Husband is 100% Native American...Northern Cheyenne and Sioux, I'm half...We don't believe in owls as being good luck. In fact quite the opposite...seeing as how they are birds of the night we believe they're sent to take people to the next life...BUT...I'm a Harry Potter fan I simply argue with my husband that They're coming to bring my Hogwarts letter oh about 12 years too late...so that being said. Maybe for everyone they're different I have a confirmed Owl in the yard...death in the famliy story, but I think you can believe in what you want...for everyone its different.

 

[ScottyHOMEy]

It's well past the season for it, but the screeches of along-eared owl are unmistakable in the spring.

In my years of Catskill weekends on an isolated property, it was not at all unusual to hear the sounds of the seasonal nighttime fauna waking up (we tended to eat late)while I was out tending the meat on the grill.

Packs of coyotes yipping, Grat Horned Owls hootig back and forth . . .

One sound that stood my hair on end was the rising call of a long-eared owl, perhaps as it encountered another. The only way know to describe it is as of a rising crescendo to the point that it sounded like a cat or raccoon fight, without the growls at the end of it.

Don't discount them as a threat. Seemingly large bodied owls, like the Long-Eared and the Great Horned, if you were to dress one out, wouldn't be as big as a scrawny chicken. Most of their apparent size is feathers. But they have deadly talons, and wings that will lift far more than their own weight.

 

[Carrie Lynn]

Looks like the Screech Owl that visited my suburban yard every night with her 3 babies.
I was able to snap a pic of it bathing in my bird bath one HOT afternoon. It was too bad I had to use my cell phone though, not a very good picture...but fun! The babies would come and bathe after dark.
Sadly, a large portion of their diet is said to be songbirds.