BirdNote; Great Horned Owls Nest

BirdNote®

Great Horned Owls Nest in Winter

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote!

[Great Horned Owl hooting]

On a chilly day, mid-winter, you notice a large nest made of sticks high in a leafless cottonwood. Atop the nest sits a large, dark shape, its broad head sporting two ear-like tufts, suggesting a cat’s ears. A female Great Horned Owl is incubating two eggs. A light snow falls on her back, as her mate roosts unseen in a nearby conifer. Since December, this pair has been hooting back and forth regularly at night.

[Great Horned Owl pair hooting + winter wind]

Why risk the year’s most severe weather by nesting now? Probably because Great Horned owlets, which hatch after a month of incubation, must remain near their parents a long time compared to many other birds — right through summer and into early fall. During this time, young owls learn the skills they need to hunt on their own — before the rigors of the next winter set in.

This adaptive strategy has proven very successful: Great Horned Owls are the supreme predatory night birds from the northernmost forests of Canada to Tierra del Fuego.

[Great Horned Owl pair hooting]

We have a photo of that owl, covered in snow, on our Facebook page. [pause] Have a look.

For BirdNote, I’m Mary McCann.

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Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Single Great Horned Owl recorded by W.L. Hershberger; pair, by W.R. Fish.

Winter wind Nature SFX Essentials #2 recorded by Gordon Hempton of Quiet.Planet.com.

BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Chris Peterson

© 2016 Tune In to Nature.org January 2014/2018/2020 Narrator: Mary McCann

ID#012506GHOW GHOW-03b