Snowy Owl

This beautiful Snowy Owl lives in one of the two Aviaries in the Canadian Wilds area at the Calgary Zoo, along with the Great Gray Owls. I'm not sure if it is a female or a juvenile - both have this heavy brown barring on their feathers. I seem to remember being told that it is an injured bird (it arrived fairly recently), and it does appear to have only one eye. On the other hand, that's what I thought about one of last year's young ones, because every photo I took of it was with only one eye. Then suddenly, one day, I made a visit and all the owls in the small enclosure had two eyes. Thought I'd post a photo taken from the back view, as the feathers really are very beautiful. Actually, it had come running (a sight to behold!) to within just a few feet of me and stayed there for a while, nothing between it and me. How I LOVE this feeling! Yes, hopefully the Snowy Owls will appear just outside the city before too long - totally awesome to see in the wild.