screech owl

Any of numerous owls of the genus Otus (family Strigidae). Both New World species and Old World species (called scops owls) have a facial disk and ear tufts. In spite of their name, they do not in fact screech. Their colouring resembles tree bark, and they are 8–12 in. (20–30 cm) long. They eat mostly small mammals, birds, and insects. Notable species are the common screech owl (O. asio) of North America, the flammulated owl (O. flammeolus) of western North America, and the common scops owl (O. scops) of southern Europe, Asia, and Africa.

Not even rats in the wall, for they were starved out, or rather were never baited in -- only squirrels on the roof and under the floor, a whip-poor-will on the ridge-pole, a blue jay screaming beneath the window, a hare or woodchuck under the house, a screech owl or a cat owl behind it, a flock of wild geese or a laughing loon on the pond, and a fox to bark in the night.

Walden & on the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Thoreau, Henry David View in context

Then, as he wended his way by swamp and stream and awful woodland, to the farmhouse where he happened to be quartered, every sound of nature, at that witching hour, fluttered his excited imagination, --the moan of the whip-poor-will from the hillside, the boding cry of the tree toad, that harbinger of storm, the dreary hooting of the screech owl, to the sudden rustling in the thicket of birds frightened from their roost.

The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow by Irving, Washington View in context

Every sound startled them, even that of their own footsteps among the dry leaves, and the hooting of a screech owl, from the shattered chimney of the neighboring ruin, made their blood run cold.

Adventure of the Black Fisherman by Irving, Washington View in context

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