She put up a nest box four years ago, and a female eastern screech-owl finally moved in. A month later, the owl’s mate showed up, and eventually Janet and her family watched three baby owls fledge.

The goggle-eyed Cuban screech owl gets its other common name, bare-legged owl, from its featherless lower appendages. While most of the world’s more than 200 owl species wear feathers down to ...

The large northwest subspecies max­welliae is the palest and most faintly marked. The western screech owl’s bill is blackish or dark gray at the base, but gray-plumaged individuals are ...