I found a Northern Boobook(Ninox japonica) in China. And I noticed how long the tail for a boobook!

We have had great horned owls nest in a cliff wall accross the street from our house the last 2 years. They came out and sat by the opening of the nest for a week or 2, staring at my chicken coop. Sure enough, this was the owls fledgling flight, it flew in to the chicken run then couldn't get out. Quite an ordeal!

I found a medium sized owl with his wing entangled in a barbed wire fence on 1-8-21.   He had ear tuffs and was a mottled grey/brown.   I approached him and he fluffed up and turned his head and looked at me with the biggest eyes Ive ever seen.   I gathered my supplies then covered him with a bath towel.   I was able to cut his wing loose.  It didn't bleed, I just cut one feather and some down.  He flopped backward with both wings extended.   I tried touching his feet with a stick , hoping he would release the wire but he didn't.    I went on with running my dogs and when I returned in about 10 minutes he was sitting upright on the strand of wire.   He was a bit wobbly but still hanging on.   I called my husband who was working at the barn to come and see.   I was surprised how scared he was of the owl and told me how dangerous he was.    I left for about 1 hour and when I returned he was gone!   I love birding and have always counted it a blessing to see an owl.   Now when I run my dogs I wonder where he is and if he is watching.   Nice to share this story with other bird lovers.   My grandkids love my crazy adventures.    It was a nice blessing during a perilous time.  I saved the feather

I saw this Barred Owl in a nearby state park.  I went back several times during the next two or three weeks and he was in the exact same spot.  Once he was gone, I never saw him again.

I live just a few blocks from the UW-Madison campus (40, 000 + students). It's a very old neighborhood with lots of old trees. There's a huge Blue Spruce in our terrace. One summer afternoon I was watering my window boxes when something flew onto a lower branch of the spruce (10 ft up). I guess it surprised me because it was a silent flier, not like the crows in our neighborhood. Turns out it was the an absolutely adorable Saw-Whet Owl. It sat there for several minutes--long enough to get my husband and daughters out to see him. A beautiful memory. We also hear Great Horned owls, especially on very cold, still nights. I haven't been brave enough to bundle up and look for them.

I think one of the most memorable times I saw an owl was at a graveyard the day after my grandmother passed away. It was a Snowy, perched on a post overlooking the graveyard...not only was the bird beautiful-but as owl are considered to be psychopomps in some lore...a meaningful sighting as well.

I hear barred owls regularly where I live just south of Dayton, OH, but alas, I’ve yet to see them. I did see great horned owls just outside Gardiner, MT during a teacher fellowship at Yellowstone National Park in April 2019. We heard them outside the hostel where we were staying a couple of nights in a row, then someone spotted one of them in a tree near the hostel and we all got a good look. I loved hearing them calling to each other in the night.

I've not seen an owl in the wild but that is one of my goals in taking this class. I often hear owls in the trees around my house after dark or sometimes at the park around dusk. I live outside of Allentown, PA. After listening to some of the owls in this lesson, I'm fairly certain that the owls I hear around are great horned owls.

The first owl I saw in real life was a Barred Owl. I was birding in a park favorited by joggers and trail runners. Two joggers went past me early in the morning then from behind I heard a scream. I turned to see a barred owl flying up from the head of one of the joggers as they continued on. I had to move a bit to get the owl in my binoculars at which point it swooped at me as well. As cool as it was to see it in flight, and head on, when I realized it was coming in for the attack I was quite scared. I managed to get a picture after that and was swooped two more times in the process. At that point I realized that this was one angry owl and decided it was best that I high tail it out of there!

We have heard Barred Owls near our home in southern Maine for years. Last year we were fortunate to see both an adult and two juveniles.

We were having trees trimmed in our back yard and we discovered a Western Screech Owl (I think) hiding among the foliage, he/she was almost invisible.  Unfortunately, we never saw him again.  I guess there was too much human activity.  We now have an Owl box, hoping it will lure the owl back.

How lucky was I that a snowy owl visited our town near Burlington, VT for about two weeks this past December.

I went on a guided owl trip to Amherst Island just outside of Kingston, Ontario some years ago.  The group were able to go into a very thick grove of pine trees, one at a time, so as not to disturb the owl which was roosting there, a long-eared owl.  On the same trip we saw a saw-whet owl.   There is a great place to bird watch in Ottawa, where there have been Great-horned owls nesting in some years, but sadly, once the location of such a nest is publicized, trouble follows.  I was lucky enough to see some of these owls, but in the second year of nesting, vandals killed them. That was a difficult lesson for birders in our area to learn and when screech owls nested there in subsequent years, more care was taken to keep the whereabouts of the roosting and nesting sites out of the news.  Even fellow birders were not encouraged to have a look.

Yes!  I saw a Barn Owl at the Red Rock State Park  (CA) CBC This year.  It was roosting in a dense stand of tamarisk trees. We listen for Great horned Owls out our bedroom window when its warm enough to crack the window.

I don't have a picture for obvious reasons because I would hear this owl very early in dark mornings when taking my dog outside.  I am fairly certain it was a Great Horned Owl by the sound of its call.  Nothing is more beautiful than being in a fairly wooded area in the quiet of pre-dawn and hearing the haunting call of that owl.  I now know it was a Great Horned because of the information from this course.  Mary Ann Flannery

Yes.  I came home mid-day one day and there was a Barred Owl in the Red Pine tree in front of my house.  I took a picture of it and sent it to the local TV station, which was featuring pictures send in by viewers.  They used it!  The owl hung around for a while and then ambled off.

I live in Northeast Massachusetts and regularly hear a Great Horned Owl at night time or early in the morning when it's still dark. In addition, I have seen on eBird regular sightings of a Barred Owl at a nearby lake / park area but have not seen that particular owl myself. This lesson did a great job covering Snowy Owls specifically. There is a very well-known wildlife refuge in Newbury, MA called Parker River NWR that I visit regularly on weekends, typically at least once a month. Earlier this January, I had the pleasure of seeing three different Snowy Owls in a group trip through my state's Audubon society. One of them in particular was a very good view on the ground, and even at one point the Snowy Owl was buzzed by a Northern Harrier! This year there have been many Snowy Owl sightings there, and as a relatively new birder I feel very fortunate to have been able to observe a Snowy Owl there. I hope that when I visit there again very soon I am able to see a Snowy Owl (among the many other amazing birds)!

We live in an area that we see bard owls on a regular basis. We live in a shallow valley in Ballwin, Missouri. The area left established woods and got the nickname Owl Hollow. I have had encounters where the owl is flying over my car when coming home. (Had the moon roof open and he flew low and right over top of the car for a distance). We see families beginning to learn to fly every summer. I Willis love to be able to observe more of were they are living and see the babies as puff balls. They have flown so close while walking my dog that they almost touched my head. (And my dog is a lab so they aren’t going after her). owls fascinate me and I do believe there are more species in the woods. I just don’t know where to look.

I managed to see a bunch of owls this year! All at Tommy Thompson Park in Toronto. Close to where I live. At the start of the pandemic in March I stumbled across a Long Eared Owl in a tree, a snowy perched in a Great Crested Cormorant nest and another blending in with some cement rubble on a peninsula. In November I saw a Barred owl roosting in a tree and a female Snowy on a white branch stalking some Pipits. And One day in December in stumbled upon a Roosting Great Horned and a roosting Northern Saw Whet about 4 meters from each other. I got a quick picture of the Saw whet and quietly backed away onto another trail and literally 15 minutes later I walked by a Juvenile Snowy (maybe 1 year). 

Was lucky to see a Snowy hunt the fields near our house one winter as a kid.  Spotted a Barred at my patch in central IL this week (25+ very angry crows led me right to it).  There's a Great Horned in the area too, but I've only heard it. 

I have had the great good fortune of seeing up close and personal - the Snowy,  the Great Horned, Barn and Saw whet and Barred. Each an amazing precious experience.

I don't understand how to move through the 14 exceptional birds EXCEPT to click on each link in the list beneath the photo. You seem to suggest  there are to be 14 images (1 of 14) - focused on some exceptional characteristic BUT there is no way to scroll through 14 images EXCEPT as stated above to click on each link. Are we supposed to deduce what makes each bird exceptional based on our readings in eBird and/or All About Birds? Is this REPLY TO BIRD ACADEMY the way  I enter the discussion ?? Where might I expect to receive a REPLY FYI my email is brandon.dolores@gmail.com

I almost cried when I saw this beautiful Snowy  Owl.  It was sitting on the spillway near a very large lake.  I definitely kept my distance.  (someone said lots of people were getting much closer and she didn't seem to mind - but I wanted to stay back - I was just in such awe of seeing something so magnificent).  It was about 20 degrees on the day I saw her - but for the time I stood outside looking at her - I never once thought about how cold it was!   

I've only seen two owls in the wild. The first was a Great Horned Owl I saw at the Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Woodbridge, VA in the autumn of 2014. It was in the morning. I spotted a large number of crows who were plainly "mobbing" something so I went to see what it was. I was able to get several good photos before the crows chased it deeper into the woods. In the winter of 2014-2015 our area had an irruption of Snowy Owls and I saw one of them who was perching regularly during the day in a local backyard. I was able to see this via a friend of the homeowner but I was sworn to secrecy regarding the specific location to prevent a mob of people from showing up.

Yes.  I was very surprised to see what I believe was a barred owl sitting on a branch outside my living room window along the Schoharie Creek in upstate New York.