A special Sunday event: our ninth annual photo collection celebrating such magnificent birds of prey. These nocturnal hunters hail from Europe, Asia, North America, and South America, and are shown here in photos from recent years. If you have some time today before the big game (or are skipping the event entirely), we invite you to take a look.
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A snowy owl lands at sunset, seen in central Minnesota. #
A close portrait of a Eurasian eagle owl #
Jaylo Miles and his PTSD pet barn owl Louie hike to the summit of the highest peak in South Wales, Pen-y-Fan, on July 14, 2021. Jaylo and Louie, from Cardiff, Wales, are on a mission to help raise awareness for mental health and those who are battling with PTSD and the stigma attached to it. #
A tawny owl flies past autumn foliage in Bursa, Turkey, on November 19, 2024. #
A snowy owl preens its feathers in an enclosure at the Opel Zoo on January 28, 2025, in in Königstein im Taunus, Germany. #
A woman takes a selfie with an owl in a street in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh on November 2, 2021. #
An owl blends into its surroundings, perched in a nook in a tree trunk. #
A snowy owl rests in a field with the Minneapolis skyline in the background. #
A lesser horned owl, seen in a valley meadow in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina, on December 21, 2024. #
Young rescued owlets are treated at a Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks branch in Turkey's Düzce province, on June 17, 2024. #
A tawny owl, in flight, in Bursa, Turkey, seen on November 19, 2024. #
A crested owl perches on a branch in Braulio Carrillo National Park in Costa Rica. #
An American flag flies in the distance as a rare snowy owl looks down from its perch atop the large stone orb of the Christopher Columbus Memorial Fountain at the entrance to Union Station in Washington, D.C., on January 7, 2022. #
The face of a great grey owl, perched in a tree #
A Blakiston's fish owl threatens an ezo red fox at a feeding spot in a river in Rausu, Hokkaido, Japan. #
A rescued one-month-old boreal owlet blends in with owl soft toys at the Scottish Owl Center in West Lothian, Scotland, on August 8, 2024. #
A pallid scops owl perches on a tree, camouflaged, as its markings and colors closely match that of the tree bark. #
A barn owl flies over grassland near Deal in Kent, England, in the late afternoon sunshine on January 30, 2024. #
A close view of a snowy owl, photographed in Switzerland. #
A burrowing owl named Ettie is weighed by keeper Anna Brink at the annual weigh-in at ZSL Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire, England, on August 21, 2024. #
A great grey owl stands on a patch of snow. #
Three Eurasian eagle owlets wait for dinner on a boat deck in Finland. #
New Yorkers made a makeshift vigil in Central Park for Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped from his long-time enclosure at Central Park Zoo in 2023, that had passed away days earlier, on February 26, 2024. #
An owl eats larvae at a wildlife center in the rural Las Mercedes community of Tocaima, Colombia, on May 22, 2024. The shelter is a transit home for wildlife recovered through national police seizures, rescue operations or voluntary handovers by owners. #
A spotted owlet yawns in a public park in Bangkok on November 11, 2024. #
A European eagle owl flies low above a lake in Gelderland, Netherlands. #
A burrowing owl tilts its head outside its burrow on Marco Island, in Florida. #
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Eid al-Fitr prayers in Senegal, a new volcanic eruption in southwestern Iceland, the Ogoh-ogoh festival in Indonesia, the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in Myanmar, and much more
Images of some of these working rescue dogs and their handlers, on site and in training, from the past several years
A para-surfing event in Australia, an anti-Hamas protest in the Gaza Strip, Nowruz celebrations in Iraq, deadly wildfires in South Korea, and much more
Some of the winning and honored entries in this year’s annual photo competition
