As Holt hunts for answers, he remains awed by the strangeness of the bird itself. “There is something about that huge white owl, adapted to arctic environments, that lures me,” says Holt.

Scapulars have blackish edged white ... morph birds. Where their ranges overlap, the two species are best identified by voice. Common. Range now overlaps that of the western screech owl in eastern ...

These “plumicorns” resemble horns or, to some, catlike ears. Great horned owls are adaptable birds and live from the Arctic to South America. They are at home in suburbia as well as in woods ...