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Another superb Glen Gaffney image which appears here with his express permission. Glen is a Canadian commercial photographer from Sudbury, Ontario and his work can be seen on a great many sites on the WWW. In addition to his site just linked, he has a Webshots page which he invites you to visit. While I have admired this 1996 image before, I saw it again in an "extra large" size on the photo-net pages and was inspired to work to display it here.
The image is of a common barn owl, a bird essentially found in a great many countries of the world and distinctive for its white heart-shaped face. This particular bird was photographed in Colorado in May of 1996. While described as "common" it is a bird rarely seen by most of us, being primarily nocturnal in habit and noiseless in flight. It ranges over most of the United States and breeds also in parts of Southern Canada. It likes open areas generally, such as farmland, prairies and marshes, and nests in tree cavities, caves, unoccupied and abandoned buildings including, yes, barns. I found it interesting to learn that the bird can catch its prey in a totally dark room by sound alone. My two bird books provide different data as to size and exact name. One says the bird is 14 inches in length, the other says 15-20 inches in length. It is defined in one book as being "Tyto alba" and in the other as being "Tyto alba pratincola". A splendid image. Thank you Glen, again.