Screech Owl Portrait

“Screech Owl Portrait” black and white scrimshaw on ancient mammoth tusk ivory bark by David Smith. Depiction of owls done for Scrimshaw Collector. Really like the way the owl seems to blend into the tree trunk. Inconspicuous but locally very common is this little owl. In the varied terrain of the west, its haunts range from coastal forests in southeastern Alaska to cactus groves in the Arizona desert, and it is often found in suburban areas. Until the 1980s, Western and Eastern screech-owls were considered to belong to the same species because they look so similar; however, their voices differ, and they apparently recognize their own kind by sound.