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The great horned owl is very special to Albertan's--it's our provincial bird. Well chosen, it's a fierce hunter and a beautiful sight to see. Like most owls, it's primarily active during the night and is thus rarely spotted. During the day it rests quietly high in the branches of a tree.

Easily identified as the only owl in this area with 'horns' (made of feathery tufts), it is quite large, around 30 cm long with a wingspan as large as 140 cm. At this size, you may think it very easy for its prey to spot it, however it has several other tricks up its sleeve. Since it hunts primarily at night, its size is not as obvious, being masked by the darkness. In addition, owls are able to fly virtually silently as they have very soft and fluffy plumage. As a result, they are often able to swoop down on an unsuspecting snowshoe hare and carry it off to its nest before the hare is even aware of any danger. It prefers hares and skunks, but will also eat ground squirrels, flying squirrels, mice, chipmunks, perching birds, frogs, bats, insects, waterfowl, hawks, and even other owls. Like most owls, small animals are eaten whole and the indigestible bones and hair are regurgitated later as whitish pellets.

Very early to set up its nest in the spring, these owls are usually incubating their two or three white eggs long before the geese arrive on their northern migration. Their nest is often a borrowed hawks nest, sometimes in a tree cavity or cliff ledge. The young are born in about 30-35 days and after about 4-5 weeks flop out of the nest onto the ground. Here they are fed until they are able to effectively fly--about 9-10 weeks. They will then continue to follow their parents around for several months trying to beg for food.

One of the interesting things about this owl is the familiarity of its song. Almost all owl cartoon characters utilize the great horned owl as their model. Besides having the distinctive horn-like tufts, it is one of only two owls that actually 'hoot' (the other is the barred owl). It's low pitched hooting can be heard for quite some distance and it will often answer those capable of closely imitating its eerie call. On more than one occasion, I've held long conversations with both great horned and barred owls. Each has a slightly different call making them easy to identify. The barred owl has a higher pitched series of hoots resembling "who cooks for you...who cooks for you" while the great horned is less rigidly structured and much lower in tone. Its call is more of a "hoo, hoo-oo-oo, hoo, hoo".