screech owl

Or screech-owl

noun

any of numerous small American owls of the genus Otus, having hornlike tufts of feathers, as O. asio, of eastern North America.
(not in technical use) any owl having a harsh cry, especially the barn owl.

screech owl

a small North American owl, Otus asio, having ear tufts and a reddish-brown or grey plumage
any owl that utters a screeching cry

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First recorded in 1585–95

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Examples have not been reviewed.

An estimated 25 bird species, including ladder-backed woodpeckers, loggerhead shrikes and western screech owls, nest in their trunks and branches.

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This year, the Wildlife Center of Virginia posted on Facebook about an Eastern screech owl that flew into a glue trap.

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We have horned owls here that would happily eat a screech owl if they could.

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Each chapter of “Dinosaurs” makes mention of a different bird: hummingbirds, screech owls, cuckoos, the common New York City pigeon.

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A few doors down from the vulture, we came to a whiskered screech owl, a gray owl with large yellow eyes spray-painted on a black security screen.

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