A Chocolate Screech

From Southwest Virginia Wildlife Center at Roanoke

Eastern Screech Owls come in two main color morphs in Virginia (or "flavors," as one staff member is fond of calling them): Gray and Rufous, or red.

Both of these morphs have a variety of appearances, but they typically fall into one of the two camps. Here in the eastern US, we see a more even distribution of gray and rufous screech owls. Out west, the gray morph is more common.

Once in a while, though, we get a patient who breaks the mold: A Chocolate morph!

This handsome owl is not quite a rufous morph, but definitely not gray either. Intermediate brownish or chocolate screech owls are uncommon, but well- documented!

In fact, one study found that intermediate/chocolate morph screech owls made up nearly 40% of sightings in Florida!

The genetics controlling Screech Owls' plumage color are not well understood. The trait is polygenic, meaning that the morphs we call Gray, Red, and Chocolate are controlled by more than one mutation.

Based on the unimpressed squint he's giving the camera, we don't think this owl will be telling us any Screech Owl genetic secrets anytime soon. And that's okay with us, because he passed his pre-release test and was able to be released back to the wild after these photos were taken!