Interesting article. The horizontal barring is something I would not think to look at and I’m not sure I would be able to tell without both owls there to compare!
I look for the thicker vertical lines first, and that’s usually enough to do it since I don’t see many ESO with thick lines, then I look for the boat anchor horizontal lines if I need to.
I feel like I see way more ESO pics than WSO ones though, so if you guess ESO I’d say you have about an 80% chance of getting it right!
Plumage and vocalization are the main difference.
Those seem to be the main subspecies distinctions in many species of owl.
I posted a good article on the differences you can check out here.
Interesting article. The horizontal barring is something I would not think to look at and I’m not sure I would be able to tell without both owls there to compare!
I look for the thicker vertical lines first, and that’s usually enough to do it since I don’t see many ESO with thick lines, then I look for the boat anchor horizontal lines if I need to.
I feel like I see way more ESO pics than WSO ones though, so if you guess ESO I’d say you have about an 80% chance of getting it right!