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Almost strictly nocturnal, the Western screech-owl hunts discreetly at night and roosts during the day in dense woodlands, its perfectly streaked plumage allows it to pass as tree bark. These habits make it difficult to see, and it is more common than many are aware. It is a small owl with yellow eyes and feathered ear tufts. It exhibits geographic variation in plumage color and pattern: both gray morphs and brown morphs occur in the Pacific Northwest. Sexes are alike. The Western screech-owl is a fairly common year-round resident in lower-elevation woodlands throughout Oregon. It is usually found below 3,000…

This tiny owl has a reputation as an aggressive predator on everything from mice and voles to birds and mammals over twice its size. Coloration is highly variable with brown and gray morphs. In Oregon, color varies from dark brown in coastal mountains to gray in eastern Oregon, with an intermediate pale grayish-brown form in the Cascade mountains. About the length of a White-crowned sparrow, it has striking yellow eyes, dark vertical streaks on the breast and abdomen, and dark "eyespots" on the back of the head. It is primarily diurnal and can often be approached quite closely when it…

A thick body, small head and coloration similar to a killer whale make this dolphin easy to recognize. Dall’s porpoise is mostly black with a large white patch on the belly and flanks. The small dorsal fin is partly white and the trailing edges of the tail are frosted white. About seven feet long and weighing around 400 pounds, Dall’s live only in the north Pacific. Dall’s are the fastest of all small cetaceans and can swim at up to 35 miles per hour, almost as fast as a killer whale. When swimming at the surface they create a characteristic…

Features: Common carp are deep-bodied, heavy-looking fish with short heads and forked tails. They have large (really large) scales ranging from grey to bronze. Two barbels hang from each side of the upper lip of their subterminal (near the bottom of the head) mouth. This distinguishes them from goldfish that have no barbels. The dorsal fin is elongated. Habitat: Though tolerant of most conditions, common carp prefer large bodies of slow moving or standing water with soft sediments like mud or sand, and good growths of aquatic vegetation. They’re omnivorous bottom feeders that prefer aquatic insects, worms, mollusks and zooplankton…

The Long-tailed weasel is the larger of the two weasels in Oregon, but smaller than the other member of the genus, the mink. Males are considerably larger than females. The head is flattened and somewhat triangular; the body and neck are elongate and almost cylindrical; the legs are short, and the tail is long. The summer pelage is brown dorsally; the venter is yellowish to orangish except for a white chin and sometimes one or more scattered brown spots. The tip of the tail is black. The pelage is molted twice annually. In the Cascade Range and eastward through the…

Features: The Pacific sanddab is left-eyed, meaning both eyes are on the left side of the body. The eyed-side is dull light brown, mottled with brown or black, and sometimes yellow or orange. The blind-side is off-white to tan. They have an oval shaped body with large scales. They can grow to be 16-inches long and up to 2 pounds, though most weigh less than 1/3 pound. Habitat: As you probably guessed, sanddabs like to hang out on sandy bottoms. They are most abundant at depths of 20-50 fathoms, and are common in shallow coastal waters from British Columbia to…