The Owl Research Institute

Dedicated to owl conservation through research and education

The Roost: Our Annual Newsletter is Landing in Your Mail Box and Online

Each year we produce The Roost, our annual newsletter. It's filled with project updates, owl research info, and lots of stunning photos from talented wildlife photographers. (It's more like a magazine than a newsletter).

The Roost comes out every November, just in time to hit your coffee table before the Holidays. Be on the look-out for it and if you're not on our mailing list yet, please click the button below and choose how you'd like to receive it. We hope you enjoy it!

GET IT HERE

Watch Owls Live: Owls 24/7 on Explore.org cameras

Each year, we partner with Explore.org, an arm of the Annenberg Foundation, to share some of our local wildlife and the iconic landscape of Northwest Montana's Mission Valley through Live Cams.

The cameras are active and streaming live online 24/7. By day, you can view the scene in color - by night, infrared. These cameras have given us an ability to learn more about breeding behavior of owls and Osprey.

Download Explore App Here

LEARN MORE HERE

A white man, Denver Holt, sits on the ground next to a snowy owl nest. A male snowy owl is swooping in to attack him.

Research

We conduct long-term research on owls, their prey species, and their relationship to the habitat in which they live.

ORI's Research Projects

Publications

Group of people stand in an open grassland

Education

ORI engages and educates a global audience through our annual newsletter, live cams, social media, articles, field tours, online and live presentations, and more.

Owl ID Guide

Live Cams

Educational Outreach

A northern saw-whet owl sticks its head out of a cavity in a tree.

Conservation

We provide partners, such as federal and state agencies, private conservation groups, and land owners, with vital information to promote meaningful and informed habitat management.

Owl Conservation

a trailer is parked on a two-track in an open pine forest

Research Projects That Need Your Support

Thanks to you, the Owl Research Institute maintains long-term research on 10 owl species in Montana and Alaska. Our research is a critical step in understanding how to effectively preserve a future for owls.

Featured here are some of our priority projects in need of funding. Choose a project to support or make a general donation that will be applied where it is needed the most.

Climate Change and Snowy Owls

Understanding why populations are declining is the first step toward remedies.

Learn More

a great gray owl adult and chick in a snag nest

Great Gray Owls & Snag Data for Forest Management

Snags are a critical component of forest ecosystems and provide homes for a myriad of species. Again and again, we find them removed from otherwise ideal Great Gray habitat.

Learn More

Taking the Long-View on Long-Eared Owls

With significantly declining populations, our long-term research and monitoring is critical to our understanding of the bigger picture.

Learn More

ORI PUBLISHES PAPER - A Historical Review of Our Knowledge of Brown Lemming Population Cycles at Barrow, Alaska: Cycles No More or Never Before

Lemming and vole populations rise and fall in periodic but unpredictable fluctuations that have been observed for centuries. Although modern research has documented patterns every 4–6 years, no single factor, ie. food, predators, disease, or social stress, fully explains these outbreaks. Instead, multiple forces interact to produce population changes that resemble cycles but are better understood as recurring fluctuations rather than true, predictable cycles.

Dec 3, 2025

ORI PUBLISHES PAPER - A Historical Review of Our Knowledge of Brown Lemming Population Cycles at Barrow, Alaska: Cycles No More or Never Before

Restoring Burrowing Owls at Weapons Depo Conservation and Collaboration

Today, the project serves a multitude of purposes: a conservation success story, an important source population for Burrowing Owls in the Pacific Northwest, training grounds for biologists around the world, a platform for community outreach and education, and a long-term collaborative research and management effort. Those involved include non-profit groups, universities, the Oregon Military Department, and the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation...

Oct 15, 2025

Adult Burrowing Owl standing looking straight ahead and weapons depot Igloos dot a grassy golden open field

Northwest Woodlands Magazine Article Summer Edition

Article written about the importance of snags by the ORI and published in Northwest Woodlands magazine, a publication of the Oregon Small Woodlands, Washington Farm Forestry, Idaho Montana Forest Owners Associations

Jul 6, 2025

More ORI News

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Owl Research Institute

The Owl Research Institute

Dedicated to owl conservation through research and education

The Roost: Our Annual Newsletter is Landing in Your Mail Box and Online

Watch Owls Live: Owls 24/7 on Explore.org cameras