Topping out at just seven inches tall—about the size of a portly bluebird—this northern pygmy owl (Glaucidium gnoma californicum) is dwarfed by the plants surrounding it. Yet, while the lush temperate rainforest may look primeval, it’s actually a band of second-growth in a formerly-logged city park in Portland, Oregon.

The fact that most of Forest Park, as it’s aptly known, was logged in the early 20th century and is now hemmed by human development doesn’t seem to deter the northern pygmy owl. While species like the threatened northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) require the high canopies and complex understory of old-growth forest to hunt and nest, northern pygmy owls are often found in open forest or along forest edges, swooping through nearby meadows, clearings, lawns, and parks to capture unsuspecting prey. With songbirds comprising up to a third of the owls’ diets, they’ve even been spotted hunting near residential bird feeders.

And while they thrive in the complex temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest, they also live in the aspen and conifer forests of the Rocky Mountains and possibly as far south as the arid forests of Arizona and Mexico—depending on whether you count the nocturnal mountain pygmy owl of the Southwest to be the same species as the diurnal northern pygmy owl of the Northwest, which is a matter of debate in ornithological circles.

Either way, pygmy owls have proven versatile enough to survive in a wide range of ecosystems, including places impacted by humans. This particular bird was photographed just after fledging from its parents’ nest—one of five owlets raised at the edge of a metropolitan area of 3.2 million people. After photographer Gerrit Vyn made this image, the fledgling owls dispersed into the tendrils of wildness connecting Portland to the nearby mountains, making their home among coyotes, deer, elk, flying squirrels, falcons, bald eagles, river otters, frogs, bats, and hundreds of other species that manage to live near skyscrapers and highways, cafés and cul-de-sacs.