Owl Coloring Pages

An Owl Living in Japan's Forests

Owl is a bird that lives in forests all year round, from Kyushu to Hokkaido.
It is about 50 centimeters long, which is about the same size as a crow.
Its body is grayish-brown with dark brown stripes.
This pattern looks just like tree bark, so when it sits in a tree, it is very hard to find!
The Owl living in Hokkaido has a whiter color than in other areas.
Sometimes, it lives in shrine forests with many big trees, or in old park woods.
People say the bird you hear at night calling "Gorosuke, hooh-hooh" is Owl!

A Round Face That Collects Sound Like a Dish

Owl's face is flat and round like a dish, isn't it?
People say the feathers around its face help gather small sounds and send them to its ears.
Also, Owl's left and right ears are at slightly different heights.
Thanks to this, it can tell exactly where a sound comes from, even if it is up or down!
Even on a pitch-black night, it can hear the sound of a mouse moving under the grass and catch it.

Resting in Tree Holes and Bushes in the Daytime

Owl is a bird that is active at night.
During the day, it rests quietly on tree branches, in bushes, or inside holes in big trees.
The 1st coloring page shows Owl sitting on a tree branch.
It holds tightly onto the branch with its feet, which have sharp claws.
The 2nd coloring page shows Owl looking at you with its big black eyes from a hole in a thick tree trunk.
The 3rd coloring page shows Owl resting with its eyes narrowed in a big tree hole in a snowy forest.
Snow is piled up on the branches around it, too!

Flying Without Making Wing Sounds

Owl can fly making almost no sound at all.
People think that the edges of its wing feathers are jagged like a comb, which makes the sound of cutting through the air smaller.
The surface of its feathers is soft and fluffy, too, so it is hard to make a sound even when flapping its wings.
With these quiet wings, it gets close to its prey before being noticed.
The way Owl's wings work is even used in research for quiet electric fans!

Keep the Big Eyes Black and Leave a White Light

Japanese Owl has dark brown or black eyes.
When you color the eyes, the trick is to leave a small white dot inside the pupil.
Just by adding this white dot, the eyes will sparkle and look full of life!
Color the beak pale yellow or cream.
If you trace around the round face with dark brown, its dish-like face shape will stand out clearly.

Layer the Stripe Patterns Starting from Light Colors

First, color the whole body with light brown or gray.
After that, layer the stripe patterns on the chest and belly one by one using dark brown.
If you make the face area a bit lighter and the wings and back a bit darker, the body will look nice and round.
If you want to make a Hokkaido Owl, make the whole body whitish and draw only the stripes in dark brown!

Tree Trunks and Snowy Forests

Color the tree trunk brown or gray, and layer dark colors along the bumpy bark to make it look rough.
Make the inside of the tree hole the darkest color.
When the inside of the hole is dark, Owl inside will pop right out!
For the snow in the third picture, leave it white and add shadows with light blue.
If you want to make a night forest, color the sky dark blue or navy to get a cool Owl atmosphere.
Try coloring the Long-tailed Tit and Rock Ptarmigan coloring pages too, which are birds you'll want to meet in winter!

The difference between an Owl and a horned owl

In the Owl family, there are also birds called "horned owls."
Birds that have feathers on their head that stick up like ears are often called horned owls.
These feathers are called "ear tufts." They are not real ears, just plain feathers!
The Owl in this coloring page does not have ear tufts, so its head is nice and round.
Birds with ear tufts include the Great Horned Owl.

The Owl brings good luck

In Japan, the Owl is seen as a lucky bird because its name sounds like "no hardship."
People also write its name with characters that mean "happiness comes."
Because of this, many people decorate their homes with Owl figures or lucky charms.
In Europe, the Owl has long been a symbol of wisdom.

Why its neck turns all the way around

An Owl's eyes face straight ahead, and it can hardly move them at all.
Instead, its neck is super flexible! It can turn its head almost all the way around.
It can even look right behind itself without moving its body.
Since it cannot move its eyes, it turns its neck to look around.