I've seen a many. I've seen a Snowy owl, Great gray owl, Horned owl and their nest, Short-eared owl, barred owl, and my latest and greatest find was the Boreal owl. The boreal owl is very small; well, this one was. It was the size of an iPhone. Located near Bonnyville, Alberta, Canada. Notice the spots on its head.

I have been very lucky, I have seen a lot of different owls. Many years ago in Button Bay, Vermont I was on a Bird Walk and saw a huge shadow on the ground, no sound. I looked up and there were 4 Great Horned Owls sitting on a branch above me. It was incredible. I have seen a Barred Owl watching me as I walk through his territory and have often heard screech owls in our yard. I took a friend-who isn't a birder-to our local airport to see Snowys, she was shocked that we actually saw some, even more shocked that others were out looking for them. My husband and I found out where to see Short Eared Owls. We went out at dusk and saw these beautiful little owls flying around looking for food. On another trip we saw a Snowy on a telephone pole and a Shorty on a post. It was too cool! Owls are amazing!

Saw short eared owls in Missouri near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers at Riverlands Audubon Center. Then saw it in the Galopagos on Genovesa Island.

We saw two Ferroginous Pigmy Owls in our neighborhood, San José, Costa Rica. 

We have Great Horned Owls in our neighborhood.  The perch in the giant live oaks or on the peaks of houses and call to each other throughout the night.

I live in New Jersey near the shore. We have Snowy Owls that visit in the winter. I have seen them twice. I have seen Great Horned Owls several times, Cape Cod MA, Utah, PA and  there is a Great Horned Owl living in a near by park which I have heard but not seen. I have also seen Burrowing Owls in Fl, and a Barred Owl nesting in an Owl Box in a birding friends yard, I’ve also seen a Stygian owl and Pygmy Owl on trips to Costa Rica and Cuba. Such wonderful experiences!

I live in the Piedmont region of Delaware and have been fortunate to see several owls here in the wild on my own and on nature field trips.  I have seen barred owls and fledglings in my own forest.  I have seen a great horned owl, long eared owl, Eastern screech owl, and my favorite, the saw-whet owl.  I participated in a nature study in which a scientist trapped migrating saw-whet owls in mist nets.  We were then able to observe the little owls up close.  It was a wonderful experience.

Living in Northern California, Great Horned Owls and Barn Owls are quite prevalent and I have seen both, but more often it is the GHO that we see. Have seen chicks grow up and actually leave the nest twice. A real treat. Have also seen Pygmy Owl in the shed, I assume looking for mice and rats. The photo attached was taken in a campground at Dinosaur National Preserve along the Green River in Utah, near the border of Colorado last October. There were a pair of GHO's hanging out every evening in the campground. While it looks like it's taken in daylight, don't be fooled! My husband's camera was able to take this when it was so dark we could only actually see an outline of this fella (or fellette!)

My daughter and I saw this Snowy Owl in Ajax, Ontario in February 2018. I only learned later what a rare treat it was.

I live near Lake Norman, North Carolina and have for the last two years barred owls nesting in the neighborhood. The nightly hoots bring our household to a standstill as we stop and listen to what we believe to be a male and female communicating. I have only spotted the owl once in the early mornings while he/she sat on a tree in the garden, and we watched each other. I volunteer at Carolina Raptor Center and have recently trained in raptor rescue. My first rescue was a barred owl. These are magnificent birds with the most beautiful eyes and the softest feathers. I have also held a great horned owl. I feel that I am very privileged to be able to volunteer to learn about these interesting birds.

We spotted this Barred Owl Fledgling in Acadia National Park, ME in June 2019  

We had an Eastern Screech Owl living on our unfinished porch last spring.  When we discovered it we decided we needed to build an alternative home for it because we planned to finish the porch.  We built two different homes and it moved into one of them (assuming it’s the same owl).  Here’s a photo from last spring, i don’t know who was more surprised, me or him.  Now I get to watch it most days when it perches at the opening of its new home.

I haven't

I have seen two owls, other than the unnamed and mostly unseen owls that fly over our cars at night.  I was sitting on my couch one night and heard a horrible rack in the wall beside me where the chimney for the furnace was. Going down into my basement, I found an owl sitting on my washing machine.  I turned on the light by my back door and it eventually came up and sat on the fusebox, so I was able to open the door and let it out.  It was more than 30 years ago, so I am not totally sure what kind it was, something medium sized like a screech owl or barred owl.  An owl also fell down my grandmother's chimney into her fireplace.  It was a similar type of owl.

I have seen a couple Barn Owls and Great Horned Owls in the Sacramento Valley of California. This was the first winter I learned the calls of the Great Horned Owls and got to hear a few different pairs duet at a local refuge. I have also realized there is a pair near my house and can hear them at night when it’s quiet which is awesome!

I have had the opportunity to observe Barred Owls in my backyard in Maine, as well as a pair of Snowy Owls in New Hampshire approximately seven years ago.   Their presence attracted significant attention, resulting in a traffic backup along Route One near the ocean, where they remained for several weeks. The latest observation of a Barred Owl revealed it being persistently harassed by a group of crows. The owl remained calm and composed as the crows swooped down in a series of dive-bombing attempts before retreating. The crows were characteristically loud and disruptive during the encounter.

I'm fortunate to live near barn owls and great horned owls. I once named a pair of juvenile great horned owls "Squeak and Squoink" because those were the noises they made, back and forth, every night for awhile! I wouldn't have believed that Squoink was an owl, had I not seen it make the noise right outside my window one morning!

I have seen several owls in my life, mostly eastern screech owls. Once, I went to an event at a state park where I got to watch saw-whet owls get banded, and when they were releasing them, I even got to have one sit on my arm while it got adjusted to the dark. Once, my mom and I heard an owl near our home, and a bird identification app (Merlin) told us that it was a great horned owl! We searched and searched for it, and eventually saw it perched near the top of a conifer by our neighbor's house, silhouetted against the night sky. It was huge! We wanted to keep watching it and see if it ever really moved that much, but since it was a freezing winter night, we got too cold and had to go back inside.

My first encounter with an owl was in a park near my parent's house that I walked through with my dog on a regular basis, probably around 1998. One morning when I was in the thickset part of the woods walking along the river I heard crows and suddenly there was a Great Horned owl being mobbed in the early morning light. It was an incredible sight and one I will never forget. The silent flight of the owl and the harsh sounds of crows following it. Amazing to be in the right place at the right time!

I remember being around seven years old when I first saw a wild owl. I was taking a tour of the San Luis Valley in Colorado, and the tour bus stopped right beside a female Great Horned Owl, who was perched on one of the branches. Several years later, I was hiking through the Crow's Nest Nature Preserve in Fredericksburg Virginia when I saw a barred owl sitting silently in the canopy. My most recent encounter was spotting a colony of burrowing owls scurrying around the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge. Each time was a very special experience, and I hope to see more owls in the years to come.

The first owl I ever encountered was the great horned owl near the Matanuska glacier in Alaska- it lived in a wooded area near a well known small restaurant and I’d drive there just in the hope of spotting it. Since then, I’ve been lucky to see a barred owl, a barn owl that perched and called at night near my bedroom, a screech owl, and a scops owl in Zambia, a master of disguise.

I believe I've seen the silhouette of a barred owl one once or twice before, I would hear them with some regularity in the summer as well. My brother was taking the trash out one day in Indiana when he encountered one sitting on the opposite trash can, by the time my dad and I got out there it had already flown away but my guess is it was a great horned owl.

I got out of the car one night at our cabin in Henderson NY on Lake Ontario and an owl was sitting on a short trellis a few steps from me, so that his talons were at about eye level with me and he didn't fly away for several long seconds and just looked at me.  It was astonishing.  I can't be sure of my identification but I believe it was a barred owl and he left behind a feather that I saved.  Luckily I'm not superstitious and nothing untoward happened in the interim! I think that started my interest in taking this course.

I have seen nine owls in the wild:

• Northern Saw-whet Owl
• Burrowing Owl
• Snowy Owl
• Short-eared Owl
• American Barn Owl
• Northern Pygmy-Owl
• Western Screech-Owl
• Long-eared Owl
• Great Horned Owl

Here is a photograph of a Western Screech-Owl I took: