Source: Into Birds

If you look closely at an owl’s eyes, you’ll notice the owl’s eye colors are different.

The color of an owl’s eyes tells a story about their lives.

An owl’s eye color helps us identify their species and indicates the time of day they predominantly hunt.

Although this isn’t always accurate with every owl species, as a birdwatcher, it helps pinpoint your best chances of seeing one.

Dark Brown or Black Owl’s Eyes

Owls with dark brown or black eyes are nocturnal, meaning they prefer to hunt at night.

The dark eye color doesn’t help the owls to see in the dark. It’s an evolutionary trait to help them to camouflage in the darkness.

There are many species of owls with dark eye colors, including the Northern Spotted Owl, Barred Owl, and Barn Owl.

You might have some of these owls in your back yard right now.

Barred Owls are large gray-brown and white birds with round heads, no ear tufts, brown eyes, and a small sharp dull yellow beak.This owl is named after the bars on its chest.

These owls can capture prey in total darkness with their incredible sense of hearing.

There’s a chance you might see one of these owls in daylight on a cloudy day, but these sightings are treasured moments.

Orange Owl’s Eyes

Owls with orange eyes are crepuscular, meaning they’re active during low light periods such as dusk and dawn.

Owls with orange eyes prefer hunting for their meal in the soft light of the early morning.

Species of owls with orange eyes include the Eurasian Eagle-owl. 
Eurasian Eagle-owls are visually striking animals with their bright orange eyes, mottled feathers, and ears tufts.

Yellow Owl’s Eyes

Owls with yellow eyes are diurnal and prefer to hunt during the daytime.

Great Gray Owls are patterned with fine white, gray, and brown streaking and faint barring. Their yellow eyes shine through the fine gray-and-brown concentric circles of their facial disk with two pale arcs forming an “X” between their eyes. Their habits are just like humans.

Owls with yellow eyes are active in the day and sleep at night.

Common owls with yellow eyes include Burrowing Owl, Great Gray Owl, Northern Saw-whet Owl, Short-earned Owl, Great Horned Owl and the Snowy Owl.

Their beauty is simply undeniable.

These owls have excellent eyesight but rely on their hearing to detect mice or other small rodents moving beneath the snow.

Then they swoop down and grab their prey with their talons.

The Short-eared owl has pale yellow to bright sulphur-yellow eyes with a greyish-brown cere, and a blackish bill. Their tiny ear-tufts are set close together near the center of its forehead, often not visible, and erected only when excited.

Luck is When Preparation Meets Opportunity

Success at finding an owl often results from being in the right place at the right time.

The Great Horned Owl is the quintessential owl of storybooks with its intimidating yellow-eyed stare The Great Horned Owl is the quintessential owl of storybooks with its intimidating yellow-eyed stare It takes patience, persistence, preparation, and some luck.

But the chance of seeing a beautiful up-close is worth the effort.

Now get out and see some owls.

  • OurTragicUniverse
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    21 year ago

    This one is nocturnal as it has dark eyes, right?

    The buff-fronted owl with the heterochromia was surprisingly colourful too.

    Thank you for the links!

    • anon6789OP
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      31 year ago

      The first is a Spotted Wood Owl, and he’s nocturnal.

      I’m glad you liked them! I enjoy getting feedback, so don’t be afraid to comment on things, even if it’s just “nice owl!” or something like that. If you ask questions, I try to answer them, but there’s a lot of owls we don’t know that much about once you get away from the really common ones.

      • OurTragicUniverse
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        1 year ago

        I some how completely missed the other pictures in your comment after opening the spotted wood owl one, and scrolled past to the next comment you left with the thread links.

        Barn owls are surprisingly beautiful for being such a funny shape.

        The Oriental Bay owl lools like it’s trying really hard to pass itself off as a non-specific small mustelid, but couldn’t quite get the eyes right. Anyone else see it?

        Have you seen Black Books? Fish owl looks like if you smushed Bernard, Fran and Manny together and made them an owl.

        Thanks for sharing those with me, they were entertaining!

        • anon6789OP
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          31 year ago

          It does look a bit stoat-like in the face.

          I haven’t heard of Black Books, but it seems highly rated. I’ll have to see if I can check it out.

      • verde.viento
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        21 year ago

        You might have already done this, but a ‘talons’ post similar to this one on eyes would be very interesting. Thank you for this community!

        • anon6789OP
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          31 year ago

          There was a bit of talon talk with the Powerful Owl post and I think one about how talons keep sleeping baby owls from falling out of trees, but nothing comprehensive. I can do some research for that though.

            • anon6789OP
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              31 year ago

              No problem!

              I’ve pulled a bunch of info on talons. I’m going to have to write up something good, so I’ll probably post it next weekend. I need to find lots of pictures and get everything in an order that makes sense. There are some really cool facts, but without visuals, it’s a bit tough to understand some of the anatomy that makes it all work.

                • anon6789OP
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                  21 year ago

                  Of course! I like to learn and share what I learn with all of you.