Owls come in various colours ranging from almost all white through to almost all brown and any shade of brown, white, grey and red in between. Some owls are more solid in colour and others are full of pattern within their feathers. In this article, I will be exploring the colours of many popular species of owl and then I will be providing further details into why owls colour shades are important.
So, what colour are owls?
Owls species are made up of a mixture of colours/shades/patterns and these all directly relate to their environments. Camouflage allows owls to improve their survival as they can avoid predators and more effectively hunt prey.
| Owl Species | Colour/Pattern | Reason for this |
| Barn | Barn owls are quite pale in colour overall with light brown feathers on their back and lighter feathers on their underbelly. They have dark eyes and a mix of browns and greys on their back, head and wings. They are white on their underwing and across their face. Females have darker brown feathers around the facial disc and on their tail. They also often have small black spots under their wings and on their tummy area. Males are lighter generally and have a distinct pure white belly. | Barn owls are generally paler than other owl species since the grasslands they predominantly hunt within is light brown in colour for most of the year. Their white stomach works as an anti-silhouette meaning that when viewed from below, their silhouette is less visible within the sky. Likewise, when viewed from above they blend in well with the grasslands. |
| Great Horned | Great Horned owls can be extremely varied in colour so we will have to take a slight general approach here. Generally their colours vary from a reddish brown colour to a darker more defined grey/black with white colour scheme. Their belly is light grey with dark often black thin lines patterned consistently across it. They often have a white collar like line of feathers where the neck meets the stomach area. They have an almost burnt orange toned ring surrounding their bright yellow eyes. | Often humidity plays a part when it comes to the massive variation in colours found within this species. They can be found within northern Alaska to the tip of Tierra del Fuego. Canadian Great Horned owls tend to migrate more since they respond to the population cycles of their prey, and move into the northern United States in colder months The darker shade Great Horned owls tend to be found within the Northern regions and slowly become lighter near California and Oregon. |
| Snowy | Snowy owls are mainly white with various amounts of black and brown marks across their body. Some appear almost all white whereas other have a salt and pepper effect where they have lots of black or brown included within their patterns, this is mostly found in females as males become paler as they age. | It may seem obvious to include this one but as you probably guessed – Snowy owls are predominantly white to camouflage effectively with their snowy environment where they spend most of their lives. |
| Long-Eared | Orangey brown in colour, with a mottled pattern across their body. They often, but not always, have white eyebrows and dark black inner ears. | These owls are mainly found nesting and hunting within dense woodlands and therefore this colour scheme helps them to effectively match their surroundings with ease. |
| Eastern Screech | These Owls are usually a mix of blacks and whites or reds and whites. They are quite heavily patterned with a multitude of shades running through their feathers. | This colouring is mainly to help the Eastern Screech owl to blend in with tree bark. They nest within tree cavities so by blending into the tree bark they can be less visible to onlookers/predators. |
| Tawny | Tawny owls are mainly reddish in colour with darker tones of brown and hints of white sprinkled throughout. They have also been known to come in grey tones. They have a darker rim outlining their facial disc and a lighter toned face. Their feathers are often darker as they get closer to the tail. | It has been found that the Tawny owls that are greyer in colour survive better during snowy winters and this is because reddish brown tones are easier to see in the snow whereas grey tones are less so. Therefore, Tawny’s that are more grey in colour will probably become abundantly more common within areas of snow due to higher survival figures. |
| Eurasian Eagle | Most often they are light brown in colour with dark brown to black markings throughout especially along the wings and back. The belly is a creamy brown – off whiteish colour with varying amounts of darker colouring sprinkled throughout. They have dark coloured ear tufts, feet and bill. | Their colouring allows them to camouflage with their surroundings which are rocky, steep terrain usually located near forested areas within Europe, Asia and Northern Africa. |
| Short- Eared | Mottled brown in colour with paler off white colourings under their wings. They have been known to have darker colours along their back/wing area and dark black rims around their eyes. Their facial disc in mainly pale in colour, sometimes white. | They tend to hunt during daylight and fly relatively low therefore a pale underbelly area means they cast less of a silhouette as mentioned before with barn owls. Similarly, this colour pattern helps them be less visible when looking into the sky from ground level. Their mottled brown colour also blends well with the grasslands they often inhabit. When perched on branches or sitting within low vegetation they can camouflage relatively well when looking from top down. |
| Barred | Mottled brown and white with dark brown and black piercing eyes. They have vertical brown bars across their white underbellies whereas their upper belly/breast area consists of horizontal brown bars. | Their colour blends in well within forested settings. When sunlight shines through trees it creates a dappled pattern on the forest floor/vegetation and this is similar to the blend of colour and patterns found on a Barred owl. Barred owls take full advantage of their ability to camouflage into their surroundings to protect themselves from crows, Jays and other birds that would otherwise harass them as they rest during daytime. |
| Little | A chocolate brown tone with cream coloured streaks and dashes throughout their body. They have white legs and white eyebrows. | They are often found in farmlands and when perched on a wooden post they blend in to their environment very well and can be easily overlooked. |
| Great Grey | The name is a slight give away as this owl is mainly grey with dashes of white and darker grey throughout. They can appear almost silvery sometimes and are quite heavily patterned with concentric circles around the facial disc. They have two pale arcs between their eyes creating an ‘X’ shape and a thin black line/marking down the centre of this ‘x’. | Often found in snowy desolate regions of the northern hemisphere, across Canada, Siberia etc these owls can blend into snowy frozen landscapes and not appear too obvious while simultaneously being able to blend into less snowy forest type environments. Unlike the snowy owl which needs to be much whiter to blend in with snow full time, the Great Grey owl manages to blend into multiple environments, including snow, well enough with its silvery appearance. |
Reasons for their colourings
The table above highlights the key reason for a variety of popular owl species colouring and markings. These reasons all come down to one main thing – Camouflage.
Owls must effectively be able to camouflage into their environments for survival reasons. Not only does this mean they are less visible to their own predators it means they can become more successful predators themselves. If they can appear less visible to outsiders they are better protected and therefore their survival levels will increase. Most owl species are nocturnal and therefore they will be resting when many predators are awake during the daytime. Animals that hunt during the daytime heavily rely on their ability to see colour and therefore it is important that owls camouflage into their surroundings so that they are not immediately spotted. It is quite ironic that owls themselves do not see colour very well because most species of owl predominantly hunt in low light conditions and therefore colour doesn’t aid in this much, yet they have effectively evolved their own colourings for their own survival benefit (please see my previous post here about owls eyesight to learn more about this).
Albinism
Within the natural world, there exists a group of genetic disorders known as Albinism which means that any animal with this disorder produces little to no melanin which is what provides pigment within skin/feathers/fur. This is a genetic mutation that can result in all white colourings in animals including owls.
When an owl has albinism, the patterns of the owls feathers are often still visible but in differing tones of white. Some can just have spots of white amongst their usual plumage pigment. Also owl species can be distinguished from their individual characteristics which let us know if they are a white owl such as a snowy owl or rather an owl species with Albinism. E.g. a Great Horned owl would still have their usual ear tufts but these would instead be white.
Conclusion
I hope you have found this article interesting and can now understand why an owl’s colourings and patterns are directly linked to their environment. This is to improve survival as the owl can camouflage into their environment and effectively hide from predators and lurk on their prey! Please feel free to check out my other articles where I analyse more aspects of owls anatomy and behaviour!