How to Ethically Photograph Owls

By Nancy K. Crowell

Northern Hawk OwlThis northern hawk owl was hanging out in and around blueberry fields (hence the pinkish background) a few years ago. Hundreds of photographers visited, including me. No one could encroach too closely upon it because the fields were below a levee, where observers gathered, although the presence of so many people was no doubt disturbing.

If you ask most birders new to photography, or photographers new to photographing birds, what they would most like to photograph, odds are your top response will be an owl species. I know this to be true because that was exactly how I felt when I began to learn how to photograph birds. And most of my wildlife photographer friends felt the same.

But if you don’t know how to find an owl, how will you be able to photograph one? Planning and research are key to learning how to find owls, and the internet is a great place to start. Learn what species of owls are in your vicinity (if any) and educate yourself on their habitat and behavior. While it’s vitally important to approach all wildlife photography ethically, owls seem particularly vulnerable to bad outcomes when humans do not behave ethically.

What do I mean by that? Ideally, you don’t want to interfere with any creature’s natural behavior. It can mean the difference between life and death for them, while it’s just a photograph to you. So, first things first, you never want to bait an owl with live or dead prey. An owl, like any creature, accustomed to receiving food from humans is compromised. It may become dependent on humans for food. It may develop risky behavior to get closer to humans that offer food, and the consequences can be deadly for the owl. Many photographers new to wildlife photography don’t realize this. I have a friend who joined a workshop to shoot snowy owl pics. She didn’t understand the implications when the workshop leader told her he would be baiting the owls. Once she understood that the cruelty of purchasing pet mice to toss out for the owl, and the dangers to the owl itself, she felt terrible about having supported this practice. Don’t make the same mistake. If you see an owl photography workshop that guarantees you great action shots, ask them directly if they will be baiting the owls. To learn more about why it’s bad to bait owls, see this story from an owl researcher.

Great Gray OwlGreat gray owls and snowy owls are often subjected to baiting as they are popular owls to photograph, especially in winter.

OKAY, I WON’T BAIT THEM, BUT HOW DO I FIND THEM?

Now that we’ve made our point about ethical owl photography, here are some ideas for researching where to find owls. Because people tend to overwhelm owls, most photographers know better than to ever reveal the location of their subject. In fact, many photographers who find an owl will shoot photos and not post them for weeks and even months after they take the photos, to protect the owl from crowds of photographers stressing it. With some species, ebird.com, the bird sighting list site run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, no longer publishes exact locations, so you may get an idea of where owls are from their species maps, but it’s unlikely you will find a map with directions on their site.

There are also plenty of birding groups and forums both on Facebook and outside of Facebook. Some local birding groups will have WhatsApp chat groups or private forums where users post location information. Research groups in your area and lurk for a while to see how the users behave if you can. I would avoid groups that broadcast sensitive location information to large numbers of people. There can also be genuine conflict between birders and bird photographers.

When I first started looking to shoot photos of owls, I joined my local Audubon chapter. I got to know other wildlife photographers. I talked to people known for their owl photography, and I gradually gleaned information on locations near me. But you need to know going in that if you ask someone directly where they shot an owl photo, they are unlikely to tell you, especially if you ask that question on a public forum. In my experience, one needs to prove one is trustworthy and ethical before anyone will share location information. At least that’s how it is with my wildlife photography friends. For most of us, the fun of wildlife photography can be in the search itself. It’s genuinely rewarding when you successfully locate an owl on your own.

I still made mistakes when I began. I once flushed an owl as I was walking through a field because I didn’t even know what I was looking for. So, let me reiterate, learn the species you’re looking for and their behavior. Plan your behavior accordingly and above all, do your best not to interfere with the bird’s natural behavior.

Once you have an idea what species are in your area and what kind of habitat they prefer, it can be very rewarding to look for owls on your own. There are clues once you know what to look – and listen – for. Owls cough up pellets of undigested prey body parts (like bones) from their gut, and these can often be found on the ground beneath trees where they roost or nearby. Other birds will make a racket if an owl is in the vicinity – often swooping down to attack the owl. And you can also look for the white markings of their poop on trees that indicate an owl is or has been sitting above.

Some species, like short-eared owls, can be active during the day. Some species, like barred owls, might sit lower in trees than one would expect. Some species, like great horned owls, nest in large nests built by hawks (they don’t build their own.) Snowy owls might appear on a beach when they migrate. Do your research and learn all you can about the behavior and life of the owls you seek. If you learn better from an expert, choose a guide or naturalist who can teach you what to look for. When I became interested in raptors I took a class from a local expert – twice. It was extremely helpful in teaching me how to identify specific birds.

Some people will use their phones to play a call that might bring an owl to them. This is considered a bad practice by anyone who cares about birds because hearing a call might disrupt hunting behavior or cause an owl to stress that there is competition in their territory. Just don’t do it. If you do your research and spend enough time looking in the right places, you will be successful without such aids. Play the calls when you’re at home to become familiar with the sounds, but don’t use them in the field.

A short eared owl in flightShort eared owls often fly during the day and can be fun subjects to shoot.

OKAY I HAVE FOUND AN OWL! BUT IT’S DARK!

It’s true owls are typically most active during dawn and dusk (with some exceptions) and at night. It’s best to be prepared to shoot at higher ISO than you might normally choose, and you may want a tripod or monopod. Some owl photographers are amazing at shooting in very low light. They are often easier to find during the winter months because there is less vegetation for them to hide in.

Owls can stay perfectly still for a long time, so it is possible to shoot at a slow shutter speed, although I don’t recommend it for beginning owl photography. I once shot a picture of a Great Gray Owl at 10,000 ISO and it was perfectly fine for printing, not too noisy. To avoid noisy images, expose to the right and keep checking your histogram to be sure you don’t overexpose. Since owls are often shot in low light, this method helps you retain detail in the dark areas of the image. If you have a fast lens (f/4 or f/2.8) you can get lower ISOs by opening up to that widest aperture. Keep in mind that you will also have a shallower depth of field, but because owls have disk shaped faces, this is less an issue than with birds that have long beaks. Nevertheless, focus on the eyes to get those compelling portraits.

If the light is getting too dark for your camera to handle, get creative and try slow shutter speeds for flight shots. You might be surprised by the artistic results. For most birds in flight I recommend 1/2000 but I often shoot at 1/1600, 1/1250, 1/1000 or even 1/800, depending on the light or the effect. If I want a true blur I may shoot at 1/30 of a second. Experiment to see what works for you. Trying different techniques will help you create compelling images that stand out from others, especially if you’re shooting something as common as a barred owl.

It goes without saying that you need a long lens. The goal is to shoot photos of the owl without disturbing it. If an owl is sleeping and you wake it up, you are disrupting its behavior. If an owl is sitting on a branch listening and looking for food and it starts to puff up and extend a wing to make itself look larger, odds are you have disrupted its hunting and it’s trying to look bigger to scare you off. If you enter an owl’s territory and it suddenly swoops at you, you have gotten too close. It’s important to pay close attention to the owl’s reaction to you. Ideally, it doesn’t react because you are far enough away to not disturb it! Even better, if you set yourself up in a blind you can observe the owls with impunity.

I can’t emphasize enough how useful it is to pick a spot and simply watch. You might find that an owl is hunting in a particular pattern and time frame. Once you start to understand where and when it is flying, you can position yourself to get something special, such as a backlit shot. I know how exciting it is to just get a photo of an owl for the first time, but after that thrill has passed it’s time to be more thoughtful about the type of image you want. Owls are typically most active when the sun is low, which creates great opportunities for backlighting and side lighting.

Short-eared owl in its environmentFoggy, backlit conditions were ideal for an environmental shot of this short-eared owl on the hunt.
If you are lucky enough to find an owl nest, be extremely cautious. Never reveal the location of a nest and be very careful. Young birds are vulnerable and it’s all too easy to scare off a hard-working parent with a meal that means the difference between life and death for them. It’s common for fledgling owls to end up on the ground beneath their nest when they are learning to fly. If you come across a fledgling on the ground, back away and observe from a distance. Never use a drone to photograph a nest as it will be perceived as a predator and stress the birds.

One more technique that might help you get the shots you want is to set up your camera on a tripod and use a remote trigger to shoot while standing farther away. Whatever you can do to keep the owls safe, that should be your number one choice.

Barred owletA baby barred owlet deep in the woods.

HOW MANY PICTURES DO YOU REALLY NEED?

When you see your first owl there can be a temptation to stay too long in its presence. If you’re in a blind or standing quietly in one location, it might be okay to stay a while. But if you’re constantly jockeying for position to get a better, closer, shot, then odds are you are stressing the owl. I often use my car as a blind. Many birds are less disturbed by a car than by a human. This isn’t always possible if I’m out in the woods looking for an owl, so I do my best to stay very quiet and still. There are also handy portable blinds available.

While everyone loves a good close-up of those compelling disc shaped owl faces, more and more photographers are stepping back and taking wider angle shots that reveal the owl in its environment. With the high megapixels available in today’s camera, you can often crop a wider shot to get the tight image you want. No matter how thrilled you are to be seeing and photographing an owl, try to keep the safety and health of the owl front and center. Embrace the experience and don’t overstay your welcome. It’s a blessing when wild creatures let us into their space and a risk to their safety. You might alert other birds to their presence. You might disrupt their hunting and make them miss a meal. There are so many ways you could unintentionally impact the life of an owl. Try to remember this when your heart is beating so fast you can barely press the shutter button. Take your pictures and move on. Don’t share the location of the owl, especially not on social media. And know that once you have seen an owl, the odds of you seeing another improve. You will learn from every encounter.

Slater's eyesA close-up is an exciting image, but rarely possible in the wild. This is a captive-bred Eurasian eagle owl named Slater owned by a falconer friend of mine. When I get shots of wild owls I typically don't share them on social media for a while in order to avoid inadvertently tipping people off about their location, or in the case of known locations, their presence.

Great Horned Owlets Starting to BranchFinding an owl nest is a treasure and to protect the owls, it's best not to reveal the location. Lucky me, these great horned owls were raised in a nest in a friend's backyard.

I GOT THE SHOT!!!

It can be so exciting to finally get a photo of an owl that many people are compelled to immediately post their photos to social media. There’s nothing wrong with sharing one’s images, but it’s best to take a few precautions before doing so. I’ve already emphasized the importance of not sharing location information, but if you don’t strip that information from your EXIF info you might unwittingly share an exact location. I personally have GPS turned off in my cameras so that I can’t share the location info. If I want to mark a location I create a pin on Google maps. But many people do have GPS turned on by default. It’s easy to figure this out if you use Lightroom to catalog your photos. Simply open the image in Library mode and look at the metadata listed. Remove this data before you export images for social media or for use on your web site and you should be fine.

As I mentioned before, as exciting as it may be to share that you have photographed an owl, if you can wait before posting it is likely better for the owl. I sometimes don’t post photos for months after I captured them. I know, I know, you really want to show people what you shot, but keep in mind that it’s just a photograph to you, but for birds that might get stressed or harassed by too many people, it can be life or death. They’re just out there trying to survive.

Foggy morningA short eared owl appears as a ghostly figure perched on a fence on a foggy morning.

WHY OWLS ARE COMPELLING SUBJECTS

Owls aren’t just compelling to photograph because their disk shaped faces and their ability to turn their heads 270 degrees. They are also an indicator species that alert us to the health of an environment. If owls are declining they are likely impacted by loss of habitat and declining food sources.

They also make good ambassadors for teaching people about nature and compelling them to care. The fate of the spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest is one story that comes to mind immediately, as the logging industry and environmentalists fought a bitter battle to save this species when it became clear that logging was destroying their habitat. Although logging was stopped in many places, they are still in decline due to the emergence of barred owls, which found their way from the east coast via the corridors created by felled trees.

Snowy owls are another species that come to mind as they became wildly popular thanks to the Harry Potter stories. So many children know what snowy owls simply because of this. In some places owls are considered omens of evil and death, but with the right photos and information sharing, I believe it’s possible to help people understand how important they are to our ecosystems – and to change attitudes. I love photographing owls. I hope you have luck photographing owls yourself. And I hope you see the bigger picture and how you can help keep them around by not only shooting compelling photos without harming them, but by doing your research and sharing good information along with your beautiful images.

If you prefer to skim, here’s a summary in a bullet list of all my points:

• Before you can photograph owls, you must learn how to find them
• Research owls in your area (a good starting point is Cornell’s Lab of Ornithology sight www.allaboutbirds.org )
• Learn all you can about the habits, habitat, and behavior of the species you hope to find before going out into the field
• Look for local expert birders and learn about what can be seen locally
• Never take a workshop where owls are baited. Always ask before signing up for a workshop, especially one that states you will get good action shots (a hint they’re planning to bait!)
• Learn how to find owls in the wild – understand their sounds, the look of whitewash, pellets, and nests.
• Don’t use calls, don’t bait
• Once you find an owl, use a long lens and tripod or monopod. Keep your distance to avoid disrupting its behavior. If the owl shows any sign of stress, back off or just leave.
• Be extra cautious with nests
• Be prepared to use high ISO, especially for flight shots at dusk and dawn. For portraits, if you’re using a tripod, it’s possible to use lower ISO and long shutter speeds as owls can sit perfectly still for long periods of time.
• Strip location data from your images before sharing on social media or your website. Don’t share location information publicly and if you can resist, wait to post until the owl may have moved on.