This month, all about our ‘horned’ raptor

By Zoey McGee | Manor Ink

Want to be a raptor know-it-owl? What better raptor to learn about than the great horned owl? And here you can read everything about them!

Being 18 to 25 inches long and having a four- to five-foot wingspan, the great horned owl is New York’s largest owl. These birds are recognized by their fierce yellow eyes and “horns” or “ears” atop their large head. Though often called so, these are not actually ears nor horns, but are tufts of feathers called “plumicorns,” a word which means “feather horns” in Latin. Ornithologists believe that these tufts help camouflage the owl. The rest of the owl’s body is swathed in more feathers, varying from reddish brown to gray, black and white.

The great horned owl, like all owls, is a fantastic hunter. They have a wide variety of prey, favoring mammals like rodents, rabbits, squirrels, opossums and skunks. But they also feast on reptiles, amphibians and birds, including snakes, lizards, frogs, geese, ducks,and smaller owls. The owl does most of its hunting at dusk or at night, as they are nocturnal.

These birds do not have teeth for chewing their food, so they will either rip apart their meal or swallow it whole, and then regurgitate pellets of the indigestible material. If you find these owl pellets, you can soak them in warm water and you may discover they contain bones, teeth, claws, bills, fir or feathers. By identifying these remains, you can learn what the owl has been eating. It’s a fantastic project.

These raptors are found throughout Central America, Alaska and Canada, among many other places. They do not migrate, but stay in the same area year-round. Around here, they may make hollow cavities, tree stumps, or abandoned squirrel, hawk, heron or crow nests, their home. Most often they favor nests in a place they can blend into while roosting.

Great horned owls mate in late winter, around January and February, and both parents take part in caring for their young. The eggs hatch after about a month. At around five weeks old, the owlets leave the nest and climb on some nearby branches. They can fly at about nine to ten weeks, but are still fed and cared for by parents for several months afterward, until they can hunt, um, owl by themselves.