Barn owl at dusk

This young barn owl would appear in the tree near our house every winter afternoon about 20 minutes after sunset. I waited to take this photo until it was so dark that I could barely see the owl with my naked eye. My canon 1Dx had difficulty finding focus. I wanted the dark background with the patterns of the leaves. ISO 12800 f4.0 1/10 sec. 400mm

Image dimensions: 1791 x 1642 pixels