Flight Patterns and Hunting Tendencies of The Great Horned Owl
Great Horned owls - or the bubo virginianus - is one of the most adaptive and resilient birds in the owl family. A natural and nocturnal predator, they can be found throughout North America, from rural wooded areas to swamps, deserts, and even suburban cities. With so many possible habitats, you’d think these owls would travel anywhere for food. In fact, Great Horned owls are home bodies. They don’t move far from where they were born, almost never migrate, and instead tend to stay and hunt in their usual habitat year-round. Highly territorial, Great Horned owls tend to live and hunt in a fixed range of about 8-10 km.
On the Hunt
As one of the larger birds of prey (standing at around 25 inches tall with a three to five foot wingspan), you’d think they’d be easy to spot. But Great Horned owls possess the deadly combo of the gift of silent flight and an inherent camouflage with their feather pattern They fly in near complete silence due to specialized, soft-edged feathers that muffle sound and break up air turbulence.
“Great Horned owls have a suite of unique wing and feather features with comb-like serrations. It not only allows them to reduce sound, but the size of the wings also let them fly unusually slowly, giving them the ability to glide noiselessly,” says Krista Le Piane, a graduate student at University of California, Riverside.
And while its silent flight, excellent hearing, and great eyesight allow this owl to be a formidable hunter, oddly enough Great Horned owls have a very poor, almost non-existent sense of smell. That might be limiting for some animals, but its poor nose actually opens up more food options, allowing the Great Horned owl to be one of the only natural predators for skunks. In addition to skunks, they hunt and eat more than 50 different species of mammals.
Your Nest is My Nest
As part of their adaptive behaviour, Great Horned owls don’t build their own nests. Instead they steal or squat in nests made by hawks, crows, or herons. And if they can find a natural tree cavity or an abandoned shed, even better. They tend to use nests for a quick nap or to hideout during the daytime, and to lay their eggs, but they don’t need the shelter for warmth. Their fabulous feathers are very good insulators against the cold. And since the Great Horned owl is near the top of its food chain, they tend to live quite long for birds. They have an average lifespan of 13 years, but some live well into their 30s. As far as it's known, they have no natural predators and can be quite ferocious if another bird or beast tries to get at their young.
Finally, while there is no scientific data, or anecdotal evidence on the coffee preferences of the Great Horned owl, I’m thinking, if they did, they’d probably go for the dark roast. Right?