Great Gray Owl Peering Down from a Pine Branch

A large owl perches on a branch beside a pine trunk and looks down toward the camera. Its body is turned in profile, with the long folded wing running diagonally down the left side. The plumage is a mix of smoky brown and grey, finely barred across the chest. The broad round face has concentric rings around the eyes. A thin dark branch crosses the foreground, and needles and pale green leaves frame the bird against a soft, overcast sky.

The Great Gray Owl (Strix nebulosa) is one of the largest owls by length, though much of its bulk is feathers. It lives in northern forests across Eurasia and North America and hunts mainly small rodents such as voles. Its large facial discs help it locate prey by sound. It often hunts at dusk and dawn, and also by day, and it spends long periods sitting quietly on a perch, as it does here. This photo was taken near Rivne, Ukraine, in May 2016. The upward angle and the muted greens and browns suit a widescreen desktop monitor, where the dark branch on the left leaves room for icons.