The Screech Owl

This is another photograph from the Kidsfest that I attended with our astronomy club.  The same group that showed the beautiful orange Corn snake also brought along this beautiful Screech owl!  Isn't he just amazing?  He is unexpectedly quite small - probably only nine-inches tall.  He arrives in a hollowed-out piece of tree trunk, covered with a burlap.  He feels more comfortable sitting in the dark, when he is transported.  But he is quite happy to sit on his handler's black glove, to which he is tied by a strip of leather, while people get to examine him up close.