Megascops asio
Order Strigiformes
Family Strigidae
Adult.— Either bright reddish-brown, or delicate brownish-gray, streaked with black, the two phases of color having nothing to do with sex or age; two “ears,” tufts of feathers about an inch long, on the sides of the head.
Nest, in a hole in a tree.
Eggs, white.
The Screech Owl is a common permanent resident of New York and New England, more common in the southern portion of its range, and absent from the mountainous and heavily forested regions of the north. It is the only owl which remains in the towns and villages, the only one whose voice is regularly heard away from deep woods. Its notes are a frequent accompaniment of winter twilights, and though more often heard in autumn and winter, they are uttered occasionally at every season. The name, borrowed from Europe, is not appropriate to our species. The cry is trémulous, quavering, suggesting the soft whinnying of a horse, or the rapid and muffled beating of wings. Sometimes the little owl is seen sitting on a branch of the tree in the gathering dusk, but as a rule it keeps concealed during the day in thick evergreens, or more often in the hollow of a tree. The presence under a tree of gray pellets of mouse-fur, inclosing skull and bones, is evidence that an owl either inhabits or has inhabited the tree. Sometimes an excited scolding and fluttering of Chickadees about a hole in an apple-tree betrays the little recluse. The ear tufts distinguish it from the much rarer Acadian, our only other small owl; its small size should easily distinguish it from the other owls.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)