Flight Patterns and Hunting Tendencies of Great Horned Owls
Great Horned owls or the bubo virginianus is one of the most adaptive and resilient birds in the owl family. A nocturnal and natural predator, they can be found all 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 venture anywhere for food, but it’s generally known that Great Horned owls do not move very far, almost never migrate, and instead tend to stay and hunt in their habitat year-round. Being highly territorial, Great Horned owls tend to live and hunt in a fixed range of about 8-10km.
On the Hunt
As one of the larger birds of prey (standing at around 25 inches tall with a 3-5 foot wingspan), you’d think they’d be easy to spot. But Great Horned owls possess the deadly combo of inherent camouflage with their feather patten and the gift of silent flight. They fly in near-complete silence due to specialized, soft-edged feathers that are made to actually muffle sound and break up air turbulence.
“Great Horned owls have a suite of unique wing and feather features with comb-like serrations on the edge of the wing feathers. 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, it’s silent flight, excellent hearing, and obviously 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, 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 are known to not build their own nests. They instead would rather steal or squat in the 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. Being that the Great Horned owl is near the top of its food chain, they tend to live quite long for birds with a typical lifespan of 13 years and some living well into their 30s. As far as its known they have no natural predators and can be quite ferocious if a bird or beast tries to get at their young. There is no scientific data, or anecdotal research done on if Great Horned owls drink coffee. But if they did, they’d probably go for the dark roast, right?