Most owls are most active at night (hence the term, 'night owl'). In total darkness they are able to find dinner, using its hearing rather than its sight. It gets its name as it commonly hangs out in barns and other similar places during the day. It also is often found in dense trees. Barn owls are said to mate for life. They make their nests in these same spots and have between 2-12 white eggs 1-3 times per year. Baby barn owls stay in the nest for up to 2 months. Can you imagine if there were 12 eggs and all of them hatched? How crowded would that nest be for 2 months! Farmers actually like having these owls around as they feed on rodents including shrews and mice, which can be pesky around the barn.

Snowy owls are a much larger owl than the barn, at 20-27 inches tall. The male is mostly all white with dark spots speckled over its body and bars on its short tail.  The females is also predominantly white, but has extensive amounts of dark bars covering her body. Both sexes have yellow eyes. The official bird of Quebec, the snowy owl is the only all-white owl.

The snowy owl can be found in the wild in the Arctic tundra. In the winter they come down into Canada and northern Europe and occasionally come down into the northern United States as well. These birds usually draw attention as they perch out in the open and are not a common site in these parts. These birds are common in their range and are not endangered, possibly due to their remoteness most of the year.