I agree with Learnin, appears to be a screech owl.
Is it small?
The Missouri owls with "ear" tufts have the following adult heights:
Screech 8"
Long-Eared 15"
Great Horned 22"
The most times I have seen (and heard) screech owls is when they had two nesting pairs in the parking garage of one of our area hospitals. There were hollow steel beams with small holes used in the construction. The screech owls really enjoyed their steel-reinforced, secure homes!
The best part was if you went to the hospital after sundown, they sometimes would be emitting awesome screeches that reverberated through the concrete parking garage. Many people were freaked out by the racket, but I loved it.
P.S. The literature says your red morph is the rarest of the Missouri screech owls. Any chance you can put up a few more log homes like the one the owl already picked? It would be nice to help their population numbers a little.
I am having the same theory about adding more houses for them and the ducks, I wound up going ahead and cleaning the houses out yesterday, one had 15 rotten duck eggs in it, I guess something got the hen or for some other reason she abandoned them, I can only get to them to work on them while the ice is thick enough to walk on.
I just took the top off the box and let them fly off to a nearby tree, I'm convinced they will be right back in the boxes the next night. There were actually two of them in two different boxes, not even the same box as I seen them in the first time, one was in another home made box made out of 8" pvc pipe that I have had out for several yrs too, and have had ducks successfully hatch in them for several yrs now.
They are actually a lot smaller then I had pictured, about the size of a common pigeon, they been eating bluejays, one had a half eaten bluejay in the box with him and tons of bluejay feathers in all the boxes.
Am definitely planning on making a few more of the hollow log boxes, everything seems to love them, Ive had more success in them and the PVC boxes then I have in the regular commercial bought DuckHuts. I have had the least luck in them, only once or so that they have had ducks in them in three or four yrs, I am wondering if it may be the placement, they are a little nearer to the campground but not much and in early spring when they are nesting its usually too cold to do much camping so that shouldn't be a problem, but I am thinking about moving them further back in the flooded timbers see if it makes a difference.
Now to see if I can get a couple more built while the weather is still cold so that I can get them put up, they seem to like the thicker flooded timber that is really hard to get to by boat.
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
