Great Gray Owl

There is no single easy ID on the great gray owl; there are three or four, and you learn them one trip at a time.

The call is the cheap win, the thing you pick up first because you don’t need the bird to sit still for it.

Regional occurrence notes: I usually catch this species in the boreal forests of the northern hemisphere part of its range.

I’ve had good looks during fall migration on ridges and less consistent luck at coastal stopovers.

Anyway: not a rare bird, not a hard bird, but one I want on every trip.