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Chad, a couple of the smaller species there are now referred to as "owlets," I think in part to avoid confusion with similar-sounding species names elsewhere. The locals actually refer to this one as the "Barred Owl," but it's officially known as the Barred Owlet. We obviously have a good sense of what the "other" Barred Owl looks like in these parts.
A couple other examples of South Africa's smallish owls, from past trips:
Pearl Spotted Owlet
African Scops Owl
I saw both of these species again this trip, as well as the very cool looking (and slightly larger) White-Faced Scops Owl, and the much larger Verreaux's Eagle Owl (which has pink eyelids!). The African Scops Owl above is the smallest of these species, followed closely by the Pearl Spotted and the Barred. I'd guess they're all very close to our Pygmy owls, possibly marginally bigger. I think I've seen at least five different species of pygmy owl (North American, Peruvian, Costa Rican, Ferruginous, Austral) at this point and it's hard to differentiate any of them vs. these African species, size-wise.
The Wood Owl, btw, is smaller than our Barred, despite the similar appearance.
The Pearl Spotted Owlet looks like a Northern pygmy and appears to have the same characteristics in the dark spots on the back of it's head to make it appear as eyes, like it's looking behind to fool predators.
The African Scops Owl looks similar to our Western screech owls...
Another day....another owl.
Found this one in Whatcom Falls Park yesterday evening in the dark and drizzle. Spent about an hour with him, watched him catch and devour parts of two crayfish. He caught one right under me as I stood on the footbridge above the creek.
He acknowledged me and then ignored me
Just grabbed a crayfish and took it back to his perch
Digesting
Turned back to wait/watch for more morsels coming over the spillway
Back in Whatcom Falls Park this morning, a little farther downstream from the previous shots. Found this Barred Owl cutting into the crayfish population.
Typically dark on the creek bottom but we shoot 'em anyway.
Wow.. beautiful photos in this thread! These two young owls were nested in my front yard trees this spring. Now they're venturing into the barn. Sorry for the "crappy" setting, the little guys are awful jumpy, and had to grab what I could get.
I've recently returned from my autumn Yellowstone/Grand Teton tour. We saw several great horned owls, though this is the only one I got photos of, late one evening in the Tetons.
I hoped to get two more, as another photographer found two great horned owls outside Yellowstone (in Montana) that were fishing for trout. Very reminiscent of Joe's images here of the barred owls going for food in the streams. I checked the fishing spot several times but had no luck. There were also a few great gray sightings in the parks while I was there, but we didn't have any luck on that front either.
I heard some Barred owl calls at a park in Portland just after 3pm on Friday. I was lucky enough to capture this shot just before the owl flew off. It was being harassed by some crows...
There were also a few great gray sightings in the parks while I was there, but we didn't have any luck on that front either.
