Owls of Ohio - Ohio Department of Natural Resources

Eastern screech-owlMegascops asio (Meg-ah-scops [great little horned owl] ay-see-oh [a king horned owl])TRACKS13-17This is the most common owl in Ohio, and occupies more ecologicalniches than our other species. It was long placed in the genus Otus, but recentDNA work with this group of owls has shown North American species tobe distinct enough from their Old World counterparts that segregation intoa different genus is justified. The Eastern screech-owl occurs throughoutthe eastern half of the U.S., barely ranging into southern Canada. Itsrange largely parallels that of the eastern deciduous forest. This speciesis replaced in western North America by the Western screech-owl. Thewhiskered screech-owl of Central America barely enters the U.S. inArizona and New Mexico.C O M M O N O W L S O F O H I O 21D e s cripti o n screech-owlLength = 8.5 inchesWing span = 20 inchesWeight = 6 ouncesScreech-owls are by far the smallest owl that one is likely to encounter inOhio; they are about the same size as an American robin, although twiceas heavy. The only other common breeding owl with prominent ear tuftsis the great horned owl, which is nearly three times larger and eight timesheavier. Long-eared owls, which are generally uncommon and local wintervisitors and very rare breeders, also have conspicuous ear tufts. However,they differ in being nearly twice as large and are much more elongate ingeneral shape, and have prominent orange-buff facial discs.There are two primary color morphs in Eastern screech-owls, red andgray. Red morphs are most frequent in southern Ohio where they may be ascommon as gray morphs, at least locally, and gray morphs become predominantto the north. In northwestern Ohio, 75 to 90 percent of screech-owls are of thegray morph. There is also a much rarer intermediate brown morph.Photo by: Ohio Department of Natural Resources / Al Staffan