Search Results - Field Guide

Barn owls are highly nocturnal birds with a heart-shaped face. They love to eat mice. Most nests are in grain elevators, old barns, and similar places.

The barred owl is easily identified both visually and by sound. Learn to recognize its call, and on moonlit nights in their habitat, you may hear it quite often!

Snowy owls visit Missouri during some winters and not others. Their numbers peak here about every four years due to a lack of space for territories after a very successful breeding season.

The great horned owl has wide-set ear tufts and a white throat. After dark, you can identify it by its three to eight deep hoots grouped in a pattern, such as “hoo h'HOO, HOO, HOO.”

The short-eared owl is commonly active during day as well as night. A prairie species, it hunts while flying low over grasslands, with a buoyant, mothlike flight. The short ear tufts are difficult to see.

The northern saw-whet owl is the most nocturnal of our owls. On the rare occasions it is seen, it is usually perched near the ground in dense cover or in the entrance of a tree cavity.