I’ve come to love photographing owls in Florida, especially since there are five different year-round species to choose from.
So far I have photographed four of the five: Barred Owl, Burrowing Owl, Eastern Screech-Owl and Great Horned Owl. Still missing from my catalog is the American Barn Owl.
Over the past several weeks, I photographed some Barred Owls at Orlando Wetlands, a Burrowing Owl in Osceola County and a red-morph Eastern Screech-Owl on Merritt Island. (I also photographed a Great Horned Owl at MI, but I wasn’t happy with the results).
So, here are some of my recent Florida owl photos:
Barred Owl, Orlando Wetlands, May 2026.Juvenile Barred Owl, Orlando Wetlands, April 2026.Juvenile Barred Owl, Orlando Wetlands, April 2026.Barred Owl, Orlando Wetlands, April 2026.Barred Owl, Orlando Wetlands, April 2026.Barred Owl, Orlando Wetlands, April 2026.Barred Owl, Orlando Wetlands, April 2026.Burrowing Owl, Osceola County, May 2026.Burrowing Owl, Osceola County, May 2026.Burrowing Owl, Osceola County, May 2026.Eastern Screech-Owl (red morph), Merritt Island, National Wildlife Refuge, April 2026.Eastern Screech-Owl (red morph), Merritt Island, National Wildlife Refuge, April 2026.Eastern Screech-Owl (red morph), Merritt Island, National Wildlife Refuge, April 2026.Eastern Screech-Owl (red morph), Merritt Island, National Wildlife Refuge, April 2026.
With the temperatures in Central Florida starting to rise as the birding season cooling down, I decided to make a Saturday morning trek to the nearby UCF Arboretum to look for some little birds.
I have found there are just some birds that are harder to photograph than others. I call them my nemesis birds, and the Northern Parula was one of them.
