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.

Yes, I have seen a spotted owl while camping in the Sierra Mountains and a great horned owl in a coniferous forest flying under a moon lit sky.

Yes! Was so joyfully surprised last Fall to come around a curve on a back-wood dirt road and see a Barred Owl snoozing in a tree near the road. I hear them in the timber surrounding my house at night in all seasons - have only seen this one time.

I have seen quite a few owls because I am retired and have been fortunate to be able to travel to several other countries to see birds.  (Back when one could travel -- this is early 2021!)  We once saw a Spectacled Owl in Panama and I got the first photo below.  I don' t recall realizing this at the time, but I must have been looking at the owl's back.  I just learned from this course that the front is buffy and un-streaked!  Owls are tricky with their ability to turn their heads so far. Speaking of their heads, I also took the second picture, in Mexico, of the back of a Pygmy Owl's head -- showing the false eyes. In this case I was looking at the front of the bird and seeing the back of the head!   (I think this is a Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, but in the place where I saw it it could have been one of a couple of species.) And lastly, here is another picture of the same Pygmy Owl.

I was lucky enough to see many snowy owls in the winter of 2013-14 just north of the US  Canada border on Boundary Bay.

I snapped these breeding season urban and suburban Great Horned and Barred Owls in Albuquerque and northern Virginia, respectively.

Unfortunately I’ve only seen Oakley, the great horned owl at the Cayuga Nature Center.

Great Horned Owls are numerous in our woods. This one in March 2020 was perched at sunset quietly hooting

I spotted this Eastern Screech Owl in January perched on a Crabapple limb illuminated by the light from a nearby building

I met Tank the Sub-Arctic Great Horned Owl at a falconry experience at Hawkeye Bird and Animal Control, outside of Toronto.

Great Horned Owls, Barn Owls, Screech Owls, Burrowing Owls and Elf Owls are common when I live in Baja Arizona.

Many years back, while out for a late afternoon hike in Connecticut, two great horned owls flew overhead like ghosts.  That was my one encounter with an owl so far.  This winter, 2020-2021, we have several Snowy Owls wintering in my home state of New Jersey.  I have been on the lookout visiting a variety of locations but have been lucky enough to find one yet. As well, I have been spending a lot of late afternoons around sunset on the hunt for other owls but so far, no luck.

We have had Great Horned Owls on our property for a number of years.  I have been able to observe them roosting in spruce and sycamore trees near our house.  I think it is a nesting pair and that the nest is in a spruce tree on the edge of our field.  I have seen two owls roosting together in this tree and we enjoy listening to the duet of hoots between the male and female.  I have also observed one of the owls catching prey by swooping from a tree branch to the  ground and carrying the prey off in its' talons. The only other owl I have seen up close is an Eastern Screech Owl that was sitting in the entrance to a cavity on a branch in a sycamore tree on near our house.

This guy/gal is a frequent visitor to the woods behind our condo in Calgary, Alberta

When I lived in the Western suburbs of Boston, abutting a wetland, we had barred owls in our area. I saw one almost daily for a couple of years.  One day I saw two barred owls sitting on a tree together.  One of them was stroking the other around the eyes with those enormous talons. The most striking owl I saw there was a snowy owl, sitting on our fence post late one snowy night.  It was so imposing that the dog would not go outside.  We watched for a while and then it flew down under the bird feeder, through at least 6 inches of snow and came up with a mouse.

I saw a barn owl in a barn at Wakamatsu Farm in Placerville, California back in 2017. I've seen borrowing owls in a field outside of Sacramento. I've seen a spotted owl in Georgetown, Ca. and I've heard owl hoots in wooded areas of Tahoe.

In Sonoma county, CA, I have seen barn owls in a water tower. Otherwise i can hear a pair of great horn owls nearby my house every nights and hope to spot them during daytime after following this class🤞

We have Great Horned Owls in Berkeley/Oakland, CA, hills.  I have heard a nesting pair call to each other in the tall Monterey Pines and Redwood trees in the Berkeley hills neighborhoods.  There are lots of canyons with streams throughout this area.  Also hear Red-tailed Hawks high up but mostly they are in the Tilden Park Regional Parks area.  Barn Owls have nesting boxes in Cesar Chavez Park on SF Bay, though rare to see.  Also Burrowing Owls make ground nests there at this Bayside Park seasonally (winter).