Great horned owl Oct. 29, 2024

The Halloween season is upon us, so let"s meet one of the holiday"s icons: the great horned owl. With its keen vision, eerie vocalisations and silent flight, this owl has historically been revered and feared. In folklore and mythology, owls were considered symbols of wisdom and omens of death. On Samhain, the Celtic precursor to Halloween, the owl was believed to be the kin of roaming spirits.

© Mark Newman/Getty Images

palette

Today in History

One of the oldest parks in Quebec
Oct. 29, 2023Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia, USA
Oct. 29, 2025Ancient til trees in Fanal Forest, Madeira, Portugal

More Desktop Wallpapers:

What are these predators doing?
Dec. 8, 2023La Rocque Harbour, Island of Jersey
Blurring the lines with wearable art
The oldest way to fly
Feb. 23, 2024Haghartsin Monastery, Armenia
Jun. 17, 2025Maritime forest in Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia, United States
Jun. 7, 2025International Trails Day
Apr. 17, 2025Andean cocks-of-the-rock, Ecuador
May 9, 2025Canadian Tulip Festival
Jan. 12, 2025Crescent-tail bigeye fish, Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Dec. 25, 2023Christmas Day
Gravity-defying wonders of the world
An old bridge in a new light
Rocks rock!
The sea that acts like a lake
Dec. 20, 2025Christmas star lanterns, Germany
Nov. 13, 2024Sea lion in a kelp forest, Baja California, Mexico
Dec. 10, 2025Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba, Andalusia, Spain
Apr. 18, 2024International Day for Monuments and Sites
Sep. 11, 2025Monfragüe National Park, Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain
Nov. 14, 2024Manarola, Cinque Terre National Park, Liguria, Italy
Jun. 28, 2025Anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising
Jul. 16, 2024Dinosaur Provincial Park
Feb. 3, 2026Emerald Bay and Fannette Island, Lake Tahoe, California, United States
Apr. 20, 2024Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA
Sep. 20, 2024Ocracoke Lighthouse on Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, USA
Jul. 8, 2025Seceda, Dolomites, South Tyrol, Italy
Sep. 28, 2024Gulf Islands National Seashore, Florida, USA
Jan. 5, 2026A herd of impalas, Londolozi Game Reserve, South Africa
Jan. 1, 2026Happy New Year!