ORDER

Strigiformes (owls)

FAMILY

Strigidae (typical owls)

HABITAT AND RANGE

Great horned owls hunt and make their home in densely wooded regions. They range throughout the Northern and Southern American continents.

IDENTIFICATION

Great horned owls are one of the larges and most powerful North American owls (the great gray owl and the snowy owl are larger). They have mottled brown/dark brown plumage, white throat feathers contrast with dark cross-barred underparts. The ‘horns’ of the owl are tufts of feathers that can be up to two inches long. Great horned owls stand about 18-25 inches tall, have a wingspan of up to 60 inches and weigh 2-4 lbs. Females are slightly larger than males.

DIET

Great horned owls are nocturnal hunters. They are voracious and efficient predators and spend most of the night hunting for small animals such as rodents, rabbits, snakes and especially skunks. Their poor sense of smell renders the skunk’s main defense useless. Great horned owls have extremely strong talons capable of exerting 28 lbs of force which they use to capture and grip their prey. They eat most of their prey whole but will tear up larger prey and consume the bones as well. After digestion, owls cough up ‘owl pellets’ which is mostly hair and ground up bone that the owl wasn’t able to digest.

REPRODUCTION AND LIFESPAN

Great horned owls don’t build their own nests. They will occupy nests from other large birds such as eagles and hawks and sometimes in tree hollows. 2-4 eggs are laid February to April at several day intervals. Both sexes incubate the eggs for 26-30 days after with downy young are born and fed by both parents. The young are fledged after about 3 months. Lifespan is 20-25 years, 30 in captivity.

NOTES

Many owls have offset ears in that one ear may be higher up on the side of the head than the other. This allows for them to be able to distinguish sounds from above and below much better than other animals giving them very acute hearing for hunting. Great horned owls are very aggressive and have been known to attack humans when protecting their nest. All birds of prey have eyes that are too big for their skulls. Because of this there is no muscle behind the eye, their eyes are stationary and the owl must move its entire head to look around. Owls have special soft and sparsely distributed feathers with barbed tips that give them very silent flight.