Owl Central: Screech Owls

Screech Owls
There are three breeds of Screech Owls. There's the Western Screech Owl, which lives primarily in the west  and center area of the USA. There's the Eastern Screech Owl, which lives pretty much in the rest of the USA. And there's the Whiskered Screech owl, which lives pretty far south. However, while these three groups are considered three different breeds of Screech Owls by ornithologists and many scientists, there's not much difference between these three breeds.
If you put the three breeds together, you'll get a lot of subspecies! The Screech Owl species has 17 subspecies. Out of the three breeds, the Western Screech Owl breed is the breed with the most of these subspecies, topping off the list with 9 subspecies. The middle amount belongs to the Eastern Screech Owls which live in the USA and in Mexico. In these areas, the Eastern Screech Owl has 5 subspecies. The lowest amount belongs to the Whiskered Screech Owls, who only have 3 subspecies.
One of the few differences between each breed is the red phase. This is where the Screech Owl turns from its usual mostly-gray-and-white-with-black-bars/spots color to a red-cinnamon color. The Eastern Screech Owls does a red phase pretty commonly. The others... not so much. Though there have been rare occurances (sp?) of Western Screech Owls going through a red phase, this phase is primarily an Eastern Screech Owl thing, so it is a big factor in splitting the breeds.
Whiskered Screech Owls have a few differences from the other two breeds. One difference is the reason why the Whiskered Screech Owl is called a "Whiskered" Screech Owl. It grows whiskers from its face!
Another difference is its main diet. The Whiskered Screech Owl eats insects and bugs, especially during the winter! The Whiskered Screech Owl's soft feet are specially designed for catching bugs.
The other two breeds eat pretty similar stuff, even to other owl species in general. It's the usual small mammals. But they also eat something not many other owl species do... They eat other birds!
One thing that makes Screech Owls special is that they are the only small owl to have ear-tuffs (sp?)! These tuffs (sp?) start at the usually dark-colored beak, and go up in a "V" shape to the top of the head. However, even with this similarity, the Whiskered Screech Owl can do something with his ear-tuffs (sp?) that the other two breeds can't... it can flatten the ear-tuffs (sp?), giving its head a round look!
Screech Owls can live pretty far south, the most southern point being in South America. But they aren't truly the best northern birds. The Screech Owl population in Canada is not very big! And the Canadian Screech Owls pretty much live in mostly in the southern areas of Canada.
Screech Owls can live in many places. Usually, the species prefers forested areas. Each breed, however, has its preferences. The Western Screech Owl seems to prefer partially-open country. They like deciduous trees with gray bark so that they can hide. And breed preferences can apply to elevations, too! When the Whiskered Screech Owls and the Western Screech Owls' ranges overlap, the Whiskered Screech Owl mainly lives in higher elevations than the Western Screech Owl.
Nesting sites vary with the habitat, especially with the Western Screech Owl. Screech Owls can live in trees, nest-boxes, holes in trees made by other creatures, cacti, and in willow trees stands by the river. One breed may sometimes even live in ranges of the another breed of Screech Owl! But one breed doesn't always live at the same elevation as another Screech Owl breed when the two breeds live in the same home range... for example, the Whiskered Screech Owl lives in a higher elevation than the Western Screech Owl does when they're both in the same home range.