Great Horned Owl

We have been fortunate over the years to have many opportunities to observe Great Horned Owls.

Great Horned Owls are mottled gray-brown, with reddish brown faces and a neat white patch on the throat.

Great Horned Owls are nocturnal. You may see them at dusk sitting on fence posts or tree limbs at the edges of open areas, or flying across roads or fields with stiff, deep beats of their rounded wings. Their call is a deep, stuttering series of four to five hoots.

They have a broad range of habitats that includes deciduous and evergreen forests, swamps, desert, tundra edges, and tropical rainforest, as well as cities, orchards, suburbs, and parks.

Great Horned Owls can vary greatly in colour. Birds in the Canadian subarctic can be almost white while southern birds are more darker.

They average 18-24 inches tall and weigh in at around 3 lbs. Wingspan averages 44”.

The images below feature GHO’s at various stages from very early owlets, owlets ready to fledge, an adult feeding an owlet, and adults.