Wood Owls and Allies
Strix
Strix is a genus of owls in the typical owl family (Strigidae), one of the two generally accepted living families of owls, with the other being Tytonidae. Common names are earless owls or wood owls, though they are not the only owls without ear tufts, and "wood owl" is also used as a more generic name for forest-dwelling owls.
These are medium-sized to large, robustly built, powerful owls. They do not have ear tufts and most are highly nocturnal woodland birds. Most prey on small mammals, birds, and reptiles.
22 branches of this genus, most-observed first · about 21 known species
Barred Owl
speciesStrix varia
Tawny Owl
speciesStrix aluco
Ural Owl
speciesStrix uralensis
Great Gray Owl
speciesStrix nebulosa
Mottled Owl
speciesStrix virgata
Spotted Owl
speciesStrix occidentalis
Black-and-white Owl
speciesStrix nigrolineata
Brown Wood-Owl
speciesStrix leptogrammica
African Wood-Owl
speciesStrix woodfordii
Spotted Wood-Owl
speciesStrix seloputo
Mottled Wood-Owl
speciesStrix ocellata
Black-banded Owl
speciesStrix huhula
Rusty-barred Owl
speciesStrix hylophila
Himalayan Owl
speciesStrix nivicolum
Rufous-legged Owl
speciesStrix rufipes
Rufous-banded Owl
speciesStrix albitarsis
Chaco Owl
speciesStrix chacoensis
Fulvous Owl
speciesStrix fulvescens
Desert Owl
speciesStrix hadorami
Cinereous Owl
speciesStrix sartorii
Sparred Owl
hybridStrix occidentalis × varia
Omani Owl
speciesStrix butleri
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the old herbals & bestiaries
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Strix in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 19885.