Description
A barred owl caught mid-blink on a mossy limb, surrounded by green — bigleaf maple leaves, hanging lichen, and the soft light of a Pacific Northwest forest in leaf. Eyes closed, feathers relaxed, entirely at ease. He knew I was there. He simply did not consider it worth staying awake for.
The blink itself is worth a word. Owls have three eyelids per eye: an upper lid that closes downward when they blink, a lower lid that comes up when they sleep, and a translucent third one called the nictitating membrane that sweeps sideways across the eye like a windscreen wiper — cleaning and protecting the surface without shutting out the light. That third lid snaps shut at the instant an owl strikes prey, shielding the eye from thrashing claws and branches at the exact moment it cannot afford to look away.
Finding him at all is the hard part. A daytime barred owl is a gray-brown shape in a gray-brown tree, and their strategy is simply to sit still and be furniture. More often than not you locate one by noticing something else first: a mob of crows or jays screaming at a single point in the canopy. Songbirds hate owls and will gang up to harass one they discover. Follow the racket and look for what the birds are shouting at.
This is a high-resolution digital download of the photograph, made in Portland, Oregon — yours to print for your home or office, set as a wallpaper, or simply keep. The wide green frame makes it an easy fit above a desk or a bed.
What you’ll receive: a high-resolution JPEG, approximately 3680 × 2272 pixels — sharp enough to print at full photo quality up to about 12 × 7.5 inches at 300 DPI, and considerably larger for wall display. Delivered as an instant download the moment your order is complete.
License: Personal use only. Print it for your own home, use it as a wallpaper or screen background, enjoy it yourself. Not licensed for commercial use, resale, redistribution, or AI training. © Jonathan Swanson / JonSwan Productions. All rights reserved.