"Strix nebulosa. Barred Owl. Hoot Owl. American Wood Owl. Toes fully feathered, nearly or quite to the claws, which are blackish; bill yellow; iris black. Of medium size in this genus. Markings of back and breast in cross-bars, of belly in lengthwise stripes. Above, umber-brown or liver-color, everywhere with white or tawny, or both; breast the same; on the belly the pattern changing abruptly to heavy dusky shaft-stripes on a white or tawny ground; crissum the same; feet speckled with dusky; wings and tail like the back or rather darker, regularly barred with gray, light brown or tawny, some of the bars usually making white spots at their ends, and the markings of the wing-coverts rather in spots than bars. Lining of wings tawny, with some dusky spotting. Facial disc set in a frame of black and white specks, with blackened eye-lids, and obscurely watered with lighter and darker colors in rings around the eye as a centre, the bristly feathers about the bill mixed black and white, or white at base, blackened terminally. A notably large and somewhat impressive owl of Eastern North America, common in woodland of the U.S. especially southerly; not known to range much north of the U.S. though occurring in parts of Canada, and not reported from the West, where apparently replaced by S. occidentalis." Elliot Coues, 1884

Barred Owl

"Strix nebulosa. Barred Owl. Hoot Owl. American Wood Owl. Toes fully feathered, nearly or quite to the…

"Bubo virginianus. Great Horned Owl. Hoot Owl. Cat Owl. Distinguished by its large size and conspicuous ear-tufts, our other species of similar stature being tuftless or nearly so. Plumage varying interminably, no concise description meeting all its phases. A white collar on the throat is the most constant color-mark. On the upper parts, the under-plumage tawny, but so overlaid with course mottling of blackish and white, that it shows chiefly on the head, nape, and scapulars; the mottling chiefly transverse, and resolving into 7-9 continuous or broken bars on the wings and tail. Under parts white, indefinitely tawny-tinged, and for the most part barred crosswise with blackish, changing on the fore breast to ragged and rather lengthwise blotches. Feathering of feet nearly plain tawny. Ear-tufts black and tawny; a dark mark over eye; border of the facial disc black, the face white or tawny, but the feathers mostly black shafted. Bill and claws black; iris yellow; pupil always circular; when fully dilated as large as a finger-ring, contractile to the size of a pea." Elliot Coues, 1884

Great Horned Owl

"Bubo virginianus. Great Horned Owl. Hoot Owl. Cat Owl. Distinguished by its large size and conspicuous…