Classic bird paintings

Barred Owl painting: Audubon's plate and other classic portraits

John James Audubon painted the Barred Owl as plate 46 of The Birds of America (1827–38), staring at a gray squirrel; his name for it was the same. A free high-resolution scan is on Audubon.org. The owl shown here is from John Gould's The Birds of Europe (1832–37), where it is Ulula nebulosa.

Updated

A Barred Owl with dark eyes and brown-and-white barred feathers perched on a pale branch
Barred Owl, from John Gould's The Birds of Europe. Edward Lear, John Gould's The Birds of Europe (1832–37)

About this painting

This owl is plate 46 of John Gould's The Birds of Europe (1832–37), under the Latin name Ulula nebulosa. Edward Lear drew the plate for Gould: it is lettered “E. Lear del et lith.” An American owl in a book of European birds may look odd, but Audubon wrote that he had seen Barred Owls from New York sold in London as European birds.

Audubon’s Barred Owl: plate 46, “Barred Owl”

Audubon painted his owl “gazing in amazement at one of the squirrels,” a gray squirrel only a few inches away. He thought the Barred Owl saw poorly by day: he once watched one land on a cow's back and leave in a hurry when the cow moved.

One November, going down the Ohio near Cave-in-Rock, he saw several crows chase a Barred Owl from its tree. It climbed like a hawk until his party lost sight of it, which he noted down at the time because it was so unusual. In his last volume he added that he had shot several in Texas, and his party saw a few in Labrador.

Story: Audubon’s Ornithological Biography, vols. 1 (1831) and 5 (1839). See plate 46 free at Audubon.org.

More classic portraits, free to see

  • John James Audubon, The Birds of America, octavo edition (1840–44), plate 36: “Barred Owl”. Free scan (New York Public Library Digital Collections)
  • Edward Lear, for John Gould’s The Birds of Europe (1832–37), plate 46: “Barred Owl” (Ulula nebulosa) (the painting shown above). Free scan (University of Kansas Libraries)
  • Louis Agassiz Fuertes, for Elon H. Eaton’s Birds of New York (1910–14), plate 54: “Barred Owl”, with Great Gray Owl and Snowy Owl. Free scan (Internet Archive)

About the Barred Owl

  • Barred Owls hunt by day or by night, and sometimes hover before dropping onto their prey. (Source: National Audubon Society)

The oldest known wild Barred Owl lived at least 26 years and 7 months: it was banded in North Carolina in 1993 and found there again in 2019. That is a record from bird banding, not a typical lifespan. (Source: USGS Bird Banding Laboratory, 2025 longevity table.) How long do wild birds live?

Buying a print?

An original plate 46 is a hand-colored sheet about 26 by 38 inches, printed in Britain in 1827–38; many prints sold today are reproductions or small 1840s octavo prints. How to tell an original from a reproduction.

In a Birdfolio, the hardcover book of your own life list, this painting sits beside the Barred Owl with the date and place you first saw one. See your own list as a book, free.