Description
A barred owl at full length on a moss-covered branch, framed by lichen and new green leaves, head turned over one shoulder. This is the whole bird — the vertical bars down the belly that give the species its name, the horizontal barring across the chest, and the heavily feathered legs running all the way down to the toes.
A perch like this one is usually not a random stop. Barred owls are resident year-round, hold the same territory for years, and use favorite roosts over and over. Which gives you the single best trick for finding one: look at the ground. Owls swallow their prey whole and cannot digest bone or fur, so a few hours later they cough up a tidy compacted pellet of everything that would not dissolve. A scatter of gray pellets under a tree means an owl has been sitting above that spot for a long time. Pull one apart and you have a complete inventory of what the neighborhood’s rodents have been up to — which is exactly why they end up in school science classes.
What goes into those pellets is broader than most people assume. Barred owls take mice and voles, certainly, but also frogs, small birds, large insects — and crayfish, waded for in shallow water like a heron. Owls that eat enough of them can end up with a faint pink cast to the belly feathers from the pigment.
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.
What you’ll receive: a high-resolution JPEG, approximately 3648 × 2752 pixels — sharp enough to print at full photo quality up to about 12 × 9 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.