From Robert Pare

From Kendrick Mer

Mom and Baby Great Horned Owl

San Francisco, California

06/2026

From Derek Diehl

Great Gray in frost

Minnesota

From Andrew Selwood

A magical evening with a Long Eared Owl

A personal first for me, what a stunning bird ❤️

From South Africa Wildlife Rescue Center

Every year, many Barn Owl babies arrive, ranging from newly hatched little pink jobbies (and occasionally even eggs that we incubate) to fully feathered fledglings who have discovered the joys of flying... but have landed up in trouble of some sort.

Calli arrived from Cullinan last week looking less like a magnificent owl and more like a prehistoric pterodactyl that has accidentally wandered into the 21 st century.

Her eyes were still completely sealed, her ears also sealed, and her head and neck were still on the losing end in the negotiation with gravity.

At this stage, their appearance is... well... an acquired appreciation!

But give them a little time and these bizarre looking little souls undergo one of the most remarkable transformations in the bird world.

Leanne Hezlett has spent the past week nurturing Calli, meticulously providing the right nutritional balance, the right portions and the right feeding intervals, and adjusting everything as she rockets through those early stages of growth.

And rockets is not an exaggeration.

Barn Owl babies grow at an astonishing rate.

Over the next couple of months, this tiny, wrinkly, pink pterodactyl will gradually disappear beneath a magnificent coat of feathers.

Her eyes and ears are already open, and her neck has finally agree to support her head.

She'll become curious.. Then cheeky.. Then increasingly convinced that she knows everything.

In two months, Calli will be a fully feathered, self feeding fledgling Barn Owl, ready to face the world with all the confidence of an owl who has absolutely no recollection of ever looking like this.

For now, however, she's just a tiny pink bundle of potential .. and one very busy rehabber's full time responsibility.

From prehistoric pterodactyl... to magnificent Barn Owl. We can't wait to watch the transformation.

From Jen Marie

Keep your face always toward the sunshine and shadows will fall behind you. -Walt Whitman

A while back, I attended a photography event at a wonderful rehab center called Back To The Wild in Castalia, Ohio. They were kind enough to share their beautiful birds with us, including this adorable little saw -whet owl. She's about the size of a robin and weighs just about 3 oz. Unable to be released back into the wild due to an injury, she now fills an important role as an animal ambassador.

From Shambhunath Sadhu

TAKE-OFF

BIRD ID: MOTTLED WOOD OWL

Location: BHIGWAN, MAHARASTRA

DOP: 26-07-2025

f/5.6, 1/1000 sec, ISO 3200, 500mm Nikon

Gears

Natural Light

DOP 02/09/2026

From Shiro Ang Yeong Hui

Shot of one of the Brown Boobook recently at Lower Peirce Reservoir Park, and a cropped close up shot to show the details (and high noise 😂).

Fujifilm GFX100S II GF500mm f/5.6 + GF1.4x TC Shot at Lower Peirce Reservoir Park, September 2026

From Rolen Facundo

Philippine Scops Owl (Otus megalotis)

Tagged along after an invitation to photograph this scops owl in a backyard in Quezon City. Rain or shine, there's no reason to miss this shot!

Although typically a forest-dwelling species endemic to Luzon, Catanduanes, and Marinduque, this small nocturnal owl surprisingly showed up right in a backyard inside a QC village. With Mylene Santos, Jon-jon Salvador and Nel Si.

September 2026 Quezon City

Canon EOS R5 | Canon EF 500mm f4 ISII USM + 2x TC @1000mm on a tripod

From Kevin Lohman

A juvenile Great Horned Owl (about 5 months old) spotted its mom hunting on the ground and flew over to join her. As soon as the young owl landed, mom took off, leaving it to investigate on its own.

These three images show the young owl searching the ground for something to eat. It eventually found something worth picking up-unfortunately, it was a rock.

Still learning.

Santa Cruz, California

27 August 2026

From Rocky Point Bird Observatory

Apparently lightning CAN strike twice!!! Our second Northern Pygmy-owl of the season was captured & banded at Rocky Point today. It isn't guaranteed to catch even one every year.

From Ryan Van Dyke

We found this Great Horned Owl perched on an old electrical pole just watching the world go by 👀🦉

From Bogdan Boev

Eurasian scops owl (Otus scops) Yyxaл EXIF:

Canon EOS 1Dx Mark I

Canon EF 400 f/2.8 USM IS II + Canon TC x1.4 III

1/200sec. f/4.5 ISO200

It’s this strong visual tracking and alertness that makes her the first thing most visitors clock when they enter the site, and honestly, it tends to freak them out a bit. Your hair stands up and you’re instantly aware you’re being studied by a predator. People stop in their tracks to stare back.

But stare or no stare, Great Horned Owls are still nocturnal and so our esteemed colleague stays put chilling. The guests all go wowwww I wonder what she must be thinking? And she stands mysteriously still.

This is why it came as a big shock when one day, during a normal pathway sweeping, she decided to launch full kill mode on the maintenance guy.

This bird has an injury that prevents release, but she’s flighted with a 5-odd foot wingspan. Long term state of the art vet care has made her pretty much the maximum hugeness and buffness her species can attain. So it was the wee hours of the morning, Maintenance Guy sweeping between the aviaries by headlamp light, when the full mass of this aerial hunting machine crashed claws-first into the glass of her enclosure, inches from his head. She knows there’s glass there, by the way. She can avoid it. At that moment she just didn’t care.

So Maintenance Guy yelps and staggers back. Owl has managed to reorient on a branch and is now staring at him, pupils constricted, fully fluffed up and hooting a contralto territorial threat call. Maintenance Guy has been working here, trusted by the critters, for like 8 years. But now he can barely get a whoa hey whoa in before she swoops the glass again, collides, scratches her way down, and winds up on the ground flared up and locked in like the hounds of hell are at her door. Of course we don’t want her attacking the wall, she’ll hurt herself. Thus Maintenance Guy, now apparently first on his old friend’s shit list for no reason, has to scamper back inside and call off cleaning for the morning.

He reports it to the vet staff and they go to check on her. They approach one at a time with great caution, only to find the Great Horned Owl once again situated back up on her branch, big chilling. One at a time, with great caution, they enter the enclosure and look around for weird changes and uhhh digestive signs of illness. But nothing looks off, and the owl continues big chilling.

Everyone’s scratching their heads. The rest of the day goes by smoothly, even when Maintenance Guy walks past on rounds. No trace of threat or stress behavior at all. It seems the shit list is cancelled. Now it’s our turn to stare deep into her piercing yellow eyes, her ever-watchful gaze, and wonder - what must she be thinking?

It took 3 more incidents like this for us to figure out that she’d started a territorial rivalry with the mop.

Owls, everyone.

via

From Akron Zoo

It's a big day for our snowy owl family! The whole family is now on habitat, plus we have received the sex results for the two chicks and are excited to reveal their names!

We have a boy and a girl! The female (photo 1) is named Stella, after the stellar snowflake, which is the type of snowflake that looks like a star and are what people picture as the shape of a snowflake.

Stella:

The male is Scud (photo 2), and his name comes from the low, wispy cloud fragment that forms beneath a large storm cloud base.

Scud:

The chicks, who hatched on June 10, are doing well and are excited to meet you! Stop by and see the whole family - we're open until 5 p.m

From Chow YK

Buffy Fish Owl having its afternoon siesta..

Kuala Lumpur, 08.2026

From Owl Rescue Centre

We received an anonymous call this afternoon regarding a roadside vendor attempting to sell four eagle owlets. When we arrived, the seller noticed "Owl Rescue Centre" written on our Hilux, quickly put two and two together, and took off.

My two colleagues and I followed. Uncomfortable with the pursuit, he set the box containing the owlets on the ground and continued ahead with his park run. All in all, it was a very pleasant rescue, not a single harsh word was spoken 😉

From Jeremiah Oden

CINNAMON SCREECH-OWL a little beauty in Northern Peru continuing the theme of one shot with the camera one shot with the phone. Photos are labeled for which is which. Cheers!

Top is Sony a7IV @ 600mm, below is iPhone 14 and KOWA TSN-55a spotting scope (scope is $2500USD if you were curious like I was)

From Ojai Raptor Center

Don't be afraid to stand out from the crowd. Sometimes being a little different is what makes you unforgettable. 💕

From Rocky Mountain Wildlife Alliance

Sometimes wildlife rehab stories start with a phone call that makes you do a double take... Like, "We have a tiny owl in our pantry."

This little Flammulated Owl came to us last week after being discovered inside a home. While an owl in the pantry sounds almost adorable, we have some concerns about how this little guy ended up there.

The finder has a cat, and given the owl's small size and the circumstances, we can't rule out the possibility that he was caught and carried inside. Thankfully, he made it to us and is now receiving the care he needs.

Flammulated Owls are one of Colorado's smallest owls and are remarkably well adapted to a life that most people rarely get to see. They are primarily nocturnal insect hunters, feeding heavily on moths and other insects, and they spend much of their time quietly tucked away in forested habitats. They are also migratory, traveling south in the fall and returning to Colorado in the spring.

Their small size and quiet nature make them easy to overlook, but that doesn't make them any less important.

This little guy is getting a chance to recover, but his story is also a good reminder of how important it is to keep cats indoors, especially during migration and fledgling season. Even a cat that has never caught anything before can have a major impact on wildlife.

For now, we're happy this tiny owl is safely out of the pantry and back in the care of people who know exactly where he belongs.

Hint: it's definitely not the kitchen.