Galapagos birdlife - resident owls

Two owl species are resident in the Galapagos.

The Short-eared owl 
(Asio flammeus) The short-eared owl can often be seen on Genovesa (Tower) Island where it hunts on foot among the colonies of storm petrels. It will wait at the entrance to a storm petrels burrow and will lunge with its claws when it hears a bird within reach.   As its name implies, its ears are small and hard to see.

Galapagos barn owl
(Tyto punctissima) lives on Santa Cruz, Isabela, San Cristóbal and Fernandina, though Steadman points out it is now extinct on Floreana because of introduced mammals such as cats. It has the distinctive heart-shaped face of the common barn owl, though is smaller and darker. Like its cousin, it is almost entirely nocturnal, and rarely seen. Its diet consists primarily of small rodents, lizards, birds and bats, and its habitat is in lava tubes, holes in trees and abandoned buildings.