Yes nice shot. Good to see the first great horned owl at the zoo in a while. Did you get a picture of the new barn owl?
It's nice to see this species back at the zoo. Toronto has a good owl collection now with barn, great horned, Eurasian eagle, snowy and spectacled.
Thanks everyone for the compliments. The Barn Owl was sleeping so his eyes look odd. Possibly there is something wrong and I wanted to check first, but I will put a picture up now. arcticwolf - there is also the gorgeous Barred Owl, Charlotte, known as Charlie, in the Outreach program. She is usually brought out at member events and other functions and loves to be petted. Never having touched an owl, I was surprised to find how small her body was inside all those very soft feathers. cypher - it is clear from the picture that this is not the small dark enclosure at the beaver end of the pavilion.
There is theoretically one more species of owl at the zoo. A friend had me look up info on our past burrowing owls and according to the most recent studbook and ssp we still have an elderly female. She is at the upper end of life expectancy. She hasn't been seen in years and everyone just assumed she died but unless her existence in the AZA records is an error (totally possible based on some of the other colossal screw ups I have seen) she must be living off exhibit somewhere. The zoo does have a nice owl collection on display.
yeah, it's been a while since I looked in either of those exhibits. Couldn't quiet remember how roomy the one near the beavers is.
I forgot about the Burrowing Owls and it wasn't that long ago! I will upload a picture from 2012. The next time I went they were gone.