Binghamton Zoo Animals

Great Horned Owl

(Bubo Virginianus)
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
Genus: Bubo
Species: Virginianus

HABITAT AND RANGE: The great horned owl frequents a wide variety of terrain but is primarily a resident of rather densely forested regions. In addition to heavy woodlands, it also likes more open woodlands, orchards, parks, marshes, swamps, rivers, valleys, canyons, ravines, grain fields and brushy hillsides.

The Great Horned owl can be found from Minnesota, southern Ontario, southern Quebec, western New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, northern Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia southward through southeastern South Dakota, eastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, and eastern Texas to the Gulf Coast and Florida.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS: The great horned owl is the largest of the common resident owls of the United States and second in overall size on this continent only to the snowy owl. Members of this species are the only large owls in North America with very distinctive ear tufts. The color varies from gray in more northerly birds to reddish in southern birds. The plumage is generally dark on the upper parts and somewhat lighter on the under parts with a characteristic white patch on the throat and upper breast. On the average, it weighs 1.5 kg. (53 oz.) and its size ranges from 46-64 cm. (18-25 inches).

ADAPTATIONS: The great horned owl is the fiercest, most aggressive, and most impressive owl of North America. Essentially a nocturnal hunter, it is apt to be seen on the wing at almost anytime of night or day and is quite commonly abroad on moderately cloudy to heavily overcast days. It has superb vision, day or night, and even better hearing which enables it to pinpoint the exact location of its prey. It can make an amazingly wide variety of sounds ranging from deep booming hoots to whistles, shrieks, screams and hisses. It is mostly solitary in its habits.

ECOLOGICAL ROLE: As a predator the great horned owl is beneficial in reducing and regulating the size of rodent populations. They also help maintain the overall good health of small mammal populations by culling out the sick, injured or old individuals. They can also be destructive of game birds, song birds, game mammals, poultry and sometimes domestic pets.

DIET: Great horned owls are carnivorous. They consume a variety of small mammals, particularly rats and rabbits. They also attack and kill woodchucks, skunks and porcupines. Owls of any other species may become prey to the Great Horned owl along with quail, grouse, geese and turkeys. They may also eat snakes, turtles, lizards, frogs, toads and salamanders. At the zoo, they are fed meat and/or dead rats and rabbits.

REPRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT: Mating in the Great Horned owl takes place from November to January. The nest is practically always an abandoned nest of a Redtailed hawk, at a height of 40 to 70 feet, firmly placed in a principal upper crotch of the tree. A single brood is produced of two to five dull white granular eggs being laid in December or January. Incubation is entirely by the female and takes from 28 to 30 days. The young are altricial at birth and reach adulthood by the first winter.

STATUS IN WILD: At present this owl is very widespread and seems to be maintaining a stable population throughout its range.