Description: The species is highly variable in color. The back, wings, and tail are mottled and barred with dark brown, with the ground color yellowish buff, tawny brown, or even, in the northernmost populations, pure white. The throat is white, and the remaining underparts are barred with black and white, the width of the dark bars also varying geographically. The conspicuous ear tufts or "horns" give the species its name.

Range/Habitat: Range is widespread from Alaska throughout Canada throughout the Americas. Habitat is varied from subarctic coniferous forests to arid deserts and wooded city parks, nesting in trees, in caves, on cliff ledges, or on the ground.

Adaptations: The large eyes of owls are directed forward, and are encased in a capsule of bone, the sclerotic ring, that allows little eye movement. Owls must turn their entire heads to look sideways, facilitated by relatively long and flexible necks that permit the head to be rotated through 270 degrees. In most owls the eyes are surrounded by a facial disk of stiff feathers. As relatively few owls hunt their prey in full daylight, their hearing is particularly important. Many owls have asymmetrical skulls, with the ear openings at different levels; this enables the bird to get a "fix" on the sound made by a prey animal. Owls have binocular vision, 100 times as powerful as ours. Each time they blink, an internal eyewash cleans their eyes. Raptor eyes are protected while flying with a handy, see-through nictitating membrane.

Courtship/Gestation/Birth: In the northeastern U.S. they are among the earliest birds to nest, the incubating parent often becoming snow-covered. Begin to breed in cold of winter, 2-3 eggs are laid.

Diet: Almost any living prey, such as mammals from mice to, birds (including other owls), reptiles, and fish. They are among the few predators of skunks, whose scent often permeates the owl's plumage.

Remarks: Indigestible portions of their food, such as bones, hair, and feathers, are compressed and regurgitated as compact pellets; analysis of pellet contents reveals their prey species.

Card by Henson Robinson Zoo Education Department.

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