Owls

Great Horned Owl

Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus)

Large, thick-bodied owls (18.1-24.8 inches in length) with two prominent feathered tufts on the head. They are mottled gray-brown, with reddish brown faces with a white patch on the throat. Great Horned Owls usually gravitate toward secondary-growth woodlands but are found in a wide variety of deciduous, coniferous or mixed forests. Their home range usually includes some open habitat—such as fields, wetlands, pastures, or croplands—as well as forest. In deserts, they may use cliffs or juniper for nesting. They are active mostly during the night—especially at dusk and before dawn. They respond to intruders and other threats with bill-clapping, hisses, screams, and guttural noises.

Fun Facts: Great Horned Owls have the most diverse diet of all North American raptors. Their prey range in size from tiny rodents to geese and raptors. They eat mostly mammals and birds—including rats, chipmunks, squirrels, prairie dogs, hawks and ravens. They supplement their diet with reptiles, insects, fish, invertebrates, and sometimes carrion.

 

Northern Pygmy-Owl (Glaucidium gnoma)

This small, compact owl (6.3-7.1 inches in length) with a large, circular head without ear tufts is a brown color with white speckles on head and back. They can be found in forests ranging from deciduous woods along streams to high-elevation fir and spruce forests at timberline. They also live in cottonwood, aspen, and mixed-conifer forests. The Pygmy-Owl mostly consumes other small birds, such as hummingbirds, chickadees, warblers, and sparrows, as well as small mammals, including shrews, moles, and chipmunks. They might also be seen eating insects such as beetles and crickets, as well as reptiles such as lizards.

Fun Facts: The Pygmy-owl is more likely to be seen due to their practice of hunting during the day. Northern Pygmy-Owls nest in holes in trees. They never dig their own cavities, but instead rely on cavities excavated by rot or other species such as woodpeckers.