Sunday, September 23, 2012

Otus the Eastern Screech-Owl

 This is Otus, one of the two eastern screech-owls that we have in the education department at The Raptor Center. She spent the day today out at the Carpenter Nature Center for our fall release. The weather was mixed with clouds and cold temps for part of the day and sun and mild temps for the rest. Otus gets her name from the genus that the eastern screech owl used to belong to Otus. Recently though the numerous species of screech owls were given their own genus Megascops. You can still find the old scientific name Otus asio instead of Megascops asio in many older field guides.


7 comments:

trav4adventures said...

Oh, he is ADORABLE! I need to return to the Coachella Valley wild bird center and see their owls!

Linda Gibbons said...

Oh, my, he's a beauty! Lovely. orangy. rusty plumage!

Pia said...

Otus is a beauty! She has wonderful colored feathers.

DeniseinVA said...

He's beautiful and I love his name.

guild-rez said...

Thank you for posting the picture of this beautiful Eastern Screech Owl.
I have seen the owl close to Lake Ontario only once.

Nancy said...

Amazing little owl. I hope he leads a safe and happy life. :)

lorik said...

What a good thing it is you do - looking after the birds and then returning them to their environment! It must have been a great moment - seeing them all fly off.

And what a responsibility you had - photographing them. The photographs are great - especially this one.What an amazing face he has!

I have only ever seen one owl - and that was in a tree in a neighbour's yard. Very exciting! Thanks for being part of Mandarin Orange Monday and sharing your work:)