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Great Horned Owl

Status Uncommon resident. Breeds. Once one of our common owls, it has become scarcer in recent decades. The considerable fluctuation from year to year in numbers during late fall and winter may be brought about by irregular visitations by members of the same species from farther north wandering in search of food.

Description Length: 50-60 cm. Adults: Upperparts mottled with various shades of brown, gray, and black; prominent ear tufts; facial discs grayish white to buffy white; eyes yellow. White patch on throat sometimes extends down in narrow line to feet but is occasionally absent; underparts otherwise buff and gray, finely marked with black and white bars. Legs and feet feathered to ends of toes.

Breeding Nest: Usually a rude platform of sticks, the remnant of a nest originally built by a crow, a hawk or even an eagle, sparsely lined with dead leaves and other rubbish which may well have been placed there by the caprice of autumn winds rather than by the birds themselves. The top of an old, long-dead pine broken off squarely about 5 m from the ground was selected for one nest. The decayed wood of the interior exposed by the break had been scraped out to a depth of about 13 cm, leaving the strong outer shell as a low protective wall about the nest.

Another unusual nest site was a large cavity in a huge dead pine, about 10 m up. The entrance, probably the result of a large limb breaking away many years before, was just large enough for the bird to go through. The two eggs were placed on soft, rotted wood matted with owl's feathers about 30 cm below the base of the entrance. Of 30 nests I examined, all others were originally nests of other large, tree-nesting species.

Another nest worth mentioning was that of a pair attracted to an artificial site prepared by Cyril Coldwell in his woodlot of heavy growth at Gaspereau, Kings County. Late in the fall of 1964 he constructed a basket-like nest, using chicken wire heavily padded with moss, in an old hemlock Visiting the nest in March 1965 he found it occupied by a pair of "great horns," which successfully raised twins. Eggs:2, rarely 3; dull white and rounded ovate. Laying begins the first week in March. Of the 30 nests already mentioned, the contents of only 21 were ascertained: in 18, two eggs had been laid; in the others, three eggs. The earliest date for a complete set is 8 March 1947, when a nest containing two slightly incubated eggs was found in Kentville (J. Kelsall). Other dates are: 24 March 1927, two eggs almost fresh; 20 March 1932, three eggs slightly incubated; 22 March 1946, three eggs (from which young were emerging on 2 April); 2 April 1924, two eggs heavily incubated; and 1 May 1930, two eggs about ready to hatch. The last-mentioned late nesting suggests either a wide divergence in laying dates or, more likely, a second attempt, the first having failed.

Range Breeds throughout the forested parts of both North and South America but does not occur in the West Indies.

Remarks In referring to the terrain preferred by this species at nesting time, Bent (1938) says "I find only 13 local nests recorded in my notes . . . all were in the heaviest timber available and as far as possible from human habitations." Of the 30 nests of this species I have seen in Nova Scotia, 21 were in woodlots near farms; 2 were near settlements in non-farming sections; 6 were in remote heavy timberlands far removed from the likelihood of human intrusion, while the last (Tufts 1954) was in an ornamental deciduous tree, some 6 m above the main thoroughfare in a residential section of Amherst. This comparison shows a marked difference in behaviour patterns between Bent's Great Horned Owls and those observed in Nova Scotia, a difference not readily explained.

It seems probable that the birds which selected the unusual Amherst nest site were influenced by the proximity of the town dump, heavily infested with Norway Rats. Analyses of pellets found under the nest tree showed the pair had preyed heavily on those rodents.

A Great Horned Owl taken on 15 March 1935 near Wolfville had numerous porcupine quills protruding from its face. Some were broken off, giving the impression they had been there for some time, but the bird showed no ill effects.

The usual call of this owl is a series of four or five low-pitched hoo notes. It is quite different from the highly distinctive call of the Barred Owl.

Bubo virginianus virginianus is the resident breeding race. Gilpin (1881) described a nearly white specimen taken at Digby in February 1876 and "thought it might have been of the Arctic variety." Indeed, it appears to have been Bubo virginianus subarcticus of the Hudson Bay drainage, which sometimes occurs well southward. Another very pale bird was seen on Seal Island on 16 October 1980 (B. Hinds et al.). Piers, in his unpublished notes, mentions a specimen taken near Halifax in 1915 attributed to the dark, sooty Labrador subspecies, Bubo virginianus heterocnemis.