Owl Coloring Pages

Owls are made for coloring: big round eyes, a face like a dish and feathers that fall into neat rows of little U shapes. These owl coloring pages mix the real owls of fields, forests and deserts with cute cartoon owls, so there is one for every age and every mood.

The real owls come first. A barn owl with its heart shaped face perches on a fence, flies over a wheat field at sunset and swoops through a barn with a twig in its beak. A snowy owl skims low over snowy hills, a great horned owl grips the side of a tree trunk, a long eared owl peeks around a tall trunk, a spotted owl stands among the ferns, a burrowing owl waits at the mouth of its burrow and a tiny owl looks out of a hole in a saguaro cactus. Family life shows up in a tree hollow full of fluffy owlets, a parent bringing a beetle to its chick, an owl sheltering two owlets in the snow and a baby owl hopping off its first branch. Night scenes put an owl on a branch in front of the full moon and another on top of a scarecrow under a crescent moon.

The cute owls are round and friendly: one sits on a crescent moon, one wraps up in a scarf with a mug of cocoa, one wears a flower crown, two share an umbrella in the rain and one naps in a tree hollow. For older colorists there is an owl filled with paisley patterns, a round owl mandala, a carved owl totem pole and a page border of little owls around an open center, ready for a drawing or a message. The holidays bring an owl carving a jack o'lantern, one trick-or-treating in a witch hat, another perched on a pumpkin among bats, and owls topping a Christmas tree, holding a present in a Santa hat, building a snowman, carrying an Easter basket, hugging a heart balloon and blowing out birthday candles.

Why owls look the way they do

An owl's round face is not just for looks. The ring of stiff feathers around the eyes works like a satellite dish, catching sound and guiding it to the ears, which is how a barn owl can find a mouse under the grass in total darkness. Owls cannot move their eyes in their sockets, so they turn their whole head instead, up to about three quarters of a full turn. Their soft, fringed feathers make their flight almost silent.

A few more owl facts:

• The "horns" on a great horned owl are just tufts of feathers, not ears. Its real ears are hidden on the sides of its head.
• Burrowing owls live underground, often in old burrows dug by prairie dogs.
• Snowy owls hunt in daylight during the long Arctic summer.
• A group of owls is called a parliament.

What color are real owls?

Most owls are camouflaged in browns, grays and creams, with the pattern doing the work:

• Barn owl: golden buff back and wings with a white face and chest.
• Snowy owl: white with a few dark brown bars and bright yellow eyes.
• Great horned owl: gray-brown with darker bars and orange-yellow eyes.
• Burrowing owl: sandy brown with white spots and long pale legs.

The cartoon owls, the paisley owl and the mandala are the places for purples, pinks and turquoise, and a dark blue night sky makes a white owl or a yellow moon glow.

Cute owls and patterned owls

The simplest pages show one round owl, drawn large, with little around it. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Snowy owl
• Owlet nest
• Santa owl

The detailed pages are full of feathers, patterns and forest scenes, and the mandala and paisley owl suit teens and adults. Lots of detail begins with:

• Owl mandala
• Paisley owl
• Totem pole

Owls for fall and for the classroom

Owls are a favorite in autumn, when classrooms decorate with pumpkins, leaves and owls, and on Halloween night. The owlet and burrow pages are good for a lesson on nocturnal animals: color the owl, then talk about which animals sleep in the day and hunt at night. The owl border page makes a pretty frame for a spelling list, a poem or a thank-you note.

Printing

Every page is a free A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" shrinks the drawing by about six percent so nothing is cut off. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack prints a whole parliament of owls at once. More birds are in the bird coloring pages and the eagle coloring pages, and more woodland animals in the forest coloring pages and the animal coloring pages.