This small, brown, earless owl with a black framed, square face was long thought to be restricted to the boreal forests of Canada and Alaska but during the 1980s, it was found breeding in the Rocky Mountains of Idaho and Colorado. In Oregon, these shy owls are strictly nocturnal and live in remote mountain forests often covered by deep snows and with few passable roads.

It is presumed to be a permanent resident in Oregon. It has been regularly observed about the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness in northeast Umatilla and northwest Wallowa counties and on the south slopes of South Sister Mountain in Deschutes County. Surveys have also found them in the Willamette, Deschutes, and Umatilla national forests.

Hear the call of the Boreal owl

Photo by Nigel Seidel