The Badge Archive

The Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) is a powerful carnivore and a member of the raptor family, widely distributed across North, Central, and South America. It is a highly adaptable species that inhabits diverse environments, ranging from dense forests and rocky canyons to city parks and farmlands. These owls are patient hunters that typically wait on perches to strike at a variety of prey, including rodents, squirrels, and larger animals such as skunks or waterfowl.

Recognized by the distinctive “horn” feather tufts that earn them the nickname “Cat Owl,” these birds possess specialized physical adaptations for survival. Their soft plumage allows for muffled flight to surprise prey, while their large, fixed yellow eyes provide exceptional night vision, requiring the owl to rotate its head almost all the way around to see in different directions. Great Horned Owls often mate for life and utilize existing nests built by other large birds to raise their young, called owlets. After feeding, they regurgitate pellets containing undigested fur and bones, which serve as a primary indicator of their presence in a habitat.

Basic Facts

• Common Name: Great Horned Owl
• Scientific Name: Bubo virginianus
• Type of Animal: Bird of Prey
• Life Span: 5 to 15 years in the wild, but close to 40 years in captivity
• Size: Body: 18 to 25 inches
• Wingspan: 3.3 to 5 feet
• Weight: 2 to 5.5 pounds

Appearance

• Tufts: Tufts of feathers that look like horns gives it the Great Horned Owl name.
• Talons: Four talons on each foot to catch and kill prey. Two face forward and one back. The fourth changes. It is forward when perching, but backwards when grabbing prey.
• Beak: Hooked beaks to help them tear their prey into smaller pieces.
• Colors: Black, gray, red-brown, or white mix of colors with lighter colors on their stomachs. Often a white patch on their throats and striped bands on their stomachs.
• Feathers: Their feathers are patterned to look like the bark of a tree to blend in. Their feathers are soft to help muffle the sound of them flying.
• Eyes: Large, round, yellow eyes with a black ring around them with night vision. Sharp eyesight to see small animals while high in the sky.

Diet

• Diet Type: Carnivore
• Main Food: Very small animals (crows, mice, squirrels)
• Other Food: Small animals (cats, dogs, ducks, geese, rabbits, raccoons, skunks, voles)
• Scavenging: Live or dead animals
• Hunting: Swallows very small animals whole and tears larger prey into smaller pieces.

Habitat

• Countries: In all three Americas (North, Central, and South).
• All Environments: Both cold and warm environments, but prefer few people around.
• Forests: Dense forests with lots of prey.
• Mountains: Rocky areas with canyons and tall cliffs they can perch and wait for prey.
• Cities: City parks or near farmland where there are small animals to prey on.

Life Cycle

• Nests: They often mate for life. They use empty nests built by other large birds.
• Eggs: Female owls usually have lay 1-4 eggs in late winter. The eggs take 30-37 days to hatch.
• Hatching: The male owl brings food, the female stays to warm the eggs.
• Owlets: Baby owls are called owlets
• Learning to Fly: The parents place food on nearby branches when owlets are 5-6 weeks old to get them out of the nest.
• Growing Up: The parents care for the young for a few months and then stop feeding them to force them to hunt by themselves. Young owls are usually ready to be on their own by autumn.

Fun Facts

• Great Horned Owls are sometimes called Cat Owls because the tufts also look like cat ears.
• Great Horned Owls move their ear tufts to communicate with other Great Horned Owls, or puff up to look more threatening.
• Most live in the same place all year, but a few in the far north will migrate south in the winter.
• Their feet and toes have feathers.
• Females are larger than the males.
• They can hunt in complete darkness using their strong hearing. They can even hear prey under leaves or snow.
• They cannot turn move their eyes like humans can, which is why they can turn their heads almost all the way around.
• When hunting, they prefer doing so from a perch and not when soaring in the sky.
• Foxes, coyotes, and hawks will eat eggs and owlets.
• After swallowing, and digesting most of the prey, the undigested parts of the small animals (feathers, fur, bones) are thrown up in pellets that look like poop, but isn’t poop.

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