North America’s largest owl with a wingspan up to 60 inches. But the great gray owl is mostly fluff, weighing only 2-3 pounds, about half the weight of a snowy owl. In North America, it ranges from Alaska south to the northwestern US and east to the Great Lakes. Great gray owls also inhabit northern Europe and Russia. It is a year-round resident of secluded wilderness areas, preferring coniferous forests in the far north and mountainous areas in the west.  The great gray owl’s main prey is small rodents like mice and squirrels. The feathers of its facial disc channel sound to its ears, which are surrounded by bony cups, allowing it to locate prey, even beneath 2 feet of snow in the dark. Upon hearing its prey, the owl glides from its perch and snatches the food with its talons, breaking through layers of snow if necessary.  In the northern winter, the great gray owl largely has the rodent population to itself, which is fortunate, since adults will consume up to a third of their body weight daily. 

Usually nesting in abandoned hawk and eagle nests or on tree stumps, great gray owls are devoted parents. When prey is scarce, females will starve themselves to maximize food for their chicks, losing up to a third of their own body weight. Their sacrifices are rewarded with remarkably high breeding success rates. Breeding pairs in North America successfully fledge 70-80 percent of their young.

The great horned owl is probably best known for the large tufts of feathers on its head that look like horns. It has big cat-like eyes and brown white, gray, and black markings that look like the bark of a tree. These markings help camouflage it in the woods. It has a wing span of over four feet and it is about two feet in height.

The great horned owl has a very large range. It can be found in forests in North, Central and South America from Arctic tree regions in the north to the Straits of Magellan in the south.

The great horned owl lives in woodlands, along cliffs and canyons and at the edge of forests. The great horned owl is nocturnal. It hunts small mammals like mice, rabbits, squirrels and skunks. It also eats birds like ducks and quail. It eats small prey whole, larger prey it rips up into smaller pieces that is can swallow. It regurgitates or throws up the undigested parts, like bones and fur, in owl pellets. You can often tell what an owl has eaten by looking at these pellets.

January and early February is mating time for the great horned owl. The male and female call to each other during courtship. They use the abandoned nests of other birds, usually hawks or crows. The female lays two to three eggs. She will raise one family each year. Both the male and female incubate the eggs and provide food for the owlets.

The eggs hatch in about four weeks. Great horned owls are very protective parents and will attack intruders. The young owls leave the nest when they are between one and two months old and can fly when they are nine to ten weeks old.

This common large owl has white plum age with occasional scattered dark spots. Females possess more colored spots than males, often arranged in regular bands.This cold-weather species typically inhabits open tundra and meadows.

The snowy owl can be found throughout the icy habitats encircling the North Pole, including Alaska, Greenland, Canada, Scandinavia and Russia. During the winter, they will venture further south in search of food.

This owl feeds predominantly on lemmings and mice, although rabbits, birds and fish are also part of its diet. Most owls hunt at night, but the snowy owl is diurnal, displaying the bulk of its activity during the day. The species can locate prey visually or through its sharp sense of hearing.

Snowy owl females lay their eggs in simple bowls scraped into the ground. Both parents cooperate in bringing food to the chicks, and they also protect their young by dive-bombing predators that approach the nesting site.

The snowy owl's sense of hearing is so acute that it can find rodents under heavy snow. The ears are located asymmetrically on the head enabling it to use a kind of "binocular" hearing to home in on prey. The dense coat of feathers extends all the way to its toes providing insulation from the cold.

Kelly Funk photo