A common denizen of open woodlands and clearings, the eastern screech-owl can often be found in parks and suburban yards. This small nocturnal owl with piercing yellow eyes and prominent ear tufts ranges throughout the entire eastern half of the United States. It comes in two color morphs, a more common gray phase and a rich reddish phase.
Reddish owls are more common in the southern states, while the gray phase prevails in the north.
A bird's color has nothing to do with its age or sex, nor does it change over its lifetime. Indeed, both color phases can occur within the same brood. At the Pecos River, the ranges of the two species overlap. The species can best be told apart by listening to their vocalizations which are markedly different. The screech-owls are the most strictly nocturnal of all North American owls.