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A great grey owl in Coquitlam in February 2025.

A great grey owl was captured by a Port Coquitlam photographer on the eastern side of Coquitlam this month.

Philip Warburton said the bird isn’t usually seen in the region, but it may have shown up because of the recent cold snap as the owls seek colder climates.

“Considering our temperatures have been lower, they have been coming south,” he wrote in an email to the Tri-City News. “Awesome birds, bigger than most, but not really vicious like some can be.”

Warburton, who was seen the owl in the region a few times over the past month, snapped the images using a Pentax K3 III DSLR with a 55–300 mm lens.

Often called the Phantom of the North, the spruce owl or the bearded owl, the great grey owl (Strix nebulosa) is the world's largest owl species by length and can be seen in both the eastern and western hemispheres.