Owl

🦉 is the owl emoji, part of Unicode's Animals & Nature group, added in Emoji 3.0 (2016). Unicode's keyword list links it with “animal”, “bird”, “ornithology”, and “wise”.

Create a new emoji with 🦉

Where animal-bird emoji usually appear

DBEmoji editorial interpretation

Applies to every emoji in this Unicode subgroup, not only this one.

Birdwatching, nature, and pet-bird posts

Technical details

Source: Unicode Consortium

Unicode name: OWL
CLDR short name: owl
Codepoint: U+1F989
Hex: 1F989
Emoji version: 3.0
Unicode version: 9.0
First released: 2016
Unicode group: Animals & Nature
Unicode subgroup: animal-bird
Status: Recommended for General Interchange (RGI)

Data verified 2026-10-21 · Unicode Emoji 16.0 · How this data is built

GitHub shortcode

From GitHub's own emoji list (gemoji). Slack, Discord and other apps keep separate lists, so a code may differ there.

:owl:

Keywords

Source: Unicode CLDR

animal · bird · ornithology · owl · wise

How it looks

Your device

Rendered from open-licensed emoji sets. Your device shows its own design. Microsoft Fluent Emoji (MIT)

Download as image

Renders 🦉 with your system emoji font into PNG, WebP, or SVG. Pick a pixel size, then download.

Note: PNG and WebP use the emoji font installed on your device (Apple Color Emoji on macOS/iOS, Segoe UI Emoji on Windows, Noto Color Emoji on Android/Linux), so the look matches your platform. SVG embeds the character as text — rendering depends on the viewer.

Microsoft Fluent UI Emoji — original artwork

Download Microsoft's official Fluent rendering of 🦉. SVG files are vector (scales to any size); the 3D PNG is 256×256.

Questions people ask

What does the 🦉 owl emoji mean?: 🦉 is the owl emoji, part of Unicode's Animals & Nature group, added in Emoji 3.0 (2016). Unicode's keyword list links it with “animal”, “bird”, “ornithology”, and “wise”.
What is the Unicode codepoint for 🦉?: U+1F989, named OWL in the Unicode Standard.
When was the 🦉 owl emoji released?: It was added in Emoji 3.0, published in 2016, alongside Unicode 9.0. Phones and computers show it once their system software supports that version; older devices may show an empty box instead.
How do I type 🦉 on my phone or computer?: On iPhone or Android, open the emoji keyboard and search for “owl”. On Windows, press Windows key + . (full stop); on a Mac, press Control + Command + Space, then search for the same word. You can also copy 🦉 from this page with one click.
What is the shortcode for 🦉?: On GitHub, type :owl: and it turns into 🦉 — that code comes from GitHub's own emoji list. Slack, Discord and other apps keep their own shortcode lists; many codes match GitHub's, but check the app's emoji picker to be sure.