Nocturnal Creatures

A series of illustrations depicting common owl species that inhabit in Greece and around Europe (personal project).

Tyto alba (barn owl) literally means white owl, is a bird of prey that hunts mostly at night. These species have a very pronounced facial disc, which acts like a "radar dish", guiding sounds of prey into their incredibly acute hearing system making them capable to hunt even in the complete darkness!  Because of their ghostly appearance and eerie long shriek were referred as evil spirits and used to be hunted and killed. In reality the barn owls suffer from changes introduced by humans in rural areas, such as changes in cultivation or use of pesticides and rodenticides, which kill their prey or indirectly birds themselves.

Athene noctua (little owl) is a small owl with a flat-topped head, giving the bird a distinctive frowning expression. In Ancient Greece, it was a symbol of wisdom and knowledge and was closely associated with Athena the goddess, hence its name. Today, it is not unusual for someone to encounter little owl around the Acropolis of Athens, where the bird nests in the holes of the “Sacred Rock.”

Otus scops (scops owl) is one of the smallest owls, mostly active at night. The Latin name derives from the Greek "ώτος" (ear) and "σκώπτω" (look) and refers to their horned ears and piercing gaze. Their upper feather part is grey-brown with black streaks, resembling the bark of trees, which is perfect for camouflage. Their voice is a repetitive whistle, like submarine sonar, a very distinctive sound on summer nights. In Greek folklore, the scops owl was once a man who murdered his brother, and his guilt transformed him into a bird that cries for his missing brother, “Gioni.”