Images from St Francis Wildlife Association in Tallahassee, Florida. - January 31, 2006 - January 31, 2006 a note from Sandy Beck of St Francis Wildlife describing the abnormal eye color of their new screech owl (pictured above) "A screech owl's eyes are always yellow or green. This owl's eyes are brown. If you will look at photos you took of the other screech owls, Red (the red phase screech owl) and Otus (the brown phase screech owl), you'll notice that their ear tufts are also longer. There are a couple of other subtle differences, but these are the most obvious. There is another little species of owl in North America that looks similar to the eastern screech owl (there is also a western screech owl and whiskered screech owl native to other parts of the U.S.) called the flammulated owl. The flammulated owl is about half the weight of an eastern screech owl, has shorter ear tufts and brown eyes. His markings are also a little different. For one thing, he has some reddish facial feathers . . . hence, "flammulated," meaning "flames." You can log on to the owlpages.com to find the natural history, photos, calls, etc. on both of these owls. A list of owls is on this page: http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=all Flammulated owls are not native to Florida. There has only been one on record, who probably got blown off course. Flammulated owls live in the western U.S., eat mostly insects and so travel south of the U.S. in winter when insects are no longer available here. There has never been a brown-eyed screech owl recorded, at least as far as scientists at the Smithsonian and Florida Ornithological Society know. There are a couple of explanations for this owl. One, as I told you, is that it is a hybrid of a flammulated and screech owl. Screech and flammulated owls used to be in the same genus, "Otus." Just a few years ago, taxonomists (scientists who classify living things) decided to put them in different genuses. So now the screech owl is Megascops asio and the flammulated owl is (still) Otus flammeolus. From what I've read, one reason for this change is their very different calls. Only animals that share the same genus can interbreed, like wolves and domestic dogs or barred owls and spotted owls. While these two owls do not currently share the same genus, they did up until just a few years ago. So . . . as you can see, this is an interesting mystery we are attempting to solve." - January 31, 2006 - January 31, 2006 - January 31, 2006 - January 31, 2006 - January 31, 2006 No, it's not who you may be thinking of...It's a Great Horned Owl from Tallahassee. He was hit by a car five years ago and now has only one wing - January 31, 2006 Spanish Moss - January 31, 2006 This 3.5lb female RTH was shot in the left wing over a farm in Leon County - January 31, 2006 Her wing did not heal properly so she'll never be able to fly again - January 31, 2006 I found this red screech to be very small--tiny even. I was informed that this is their normal size. I had the impression that our Central Park screech owls were much bigger, but then I never got to see them this close. - January 31, 2006 This Barred Owl was hit by a car while hunting and lost one of its wings - January 31, 2006 The eye color of this newly found screech owl is puzzling the people at St Francis (look at the detail in the image below) - January 31, 2006 Detail of the Screech Owl's eye from above - January 31, 2006 Muscovy Duck at Lake Ella in Tallahassee - January 31, 2006 I don't know if I'm getting out of control with my biasness toward all animals, but I had to stare at this sign for several minutes with an expression of disgust. I don’t know why this poor duck is hated so much, but after looking at each bulleted line of this sign one would think that human beings do not do any or all of the listed items. I wonder what the sign would look like if one of those ducks could put one up? - January 31, 2006