About "Resting Post"

"Resting Post" actually started out with a trip to the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. They had just recently re-launched their new Bird Gallery which has more than 450 bird species and represents the largest collection of Canadian birds on display in the world. There were some fabulous specimens and I took several photos of the Great Horned Owls.

Growing up in the 1000 Islands area we were fortunate enough to have a large wooded area behind our home and there were many nights that I woke up hearing the whoo-hoo-ho-o-o of a Great Horned sitting in the white pine right behind our house. Looking out my bedroom window I was always hopeful of spotting it.

This piece brings back those memories for me.

About the Great Horned Owl

The Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus is one of Canada’s commonest large birds of prey. The most notable physical attributes are its large size and prominent ear tufts or "horns." A predator that hunts at night, this owl has enormous yellow eyes set in a broad face, a curved beak and claws, and long fluffy feathers. Its coloration tends mainly toward brown or grey-brown, with conspicuous barring. Very dark races occur in British Columbia and Labrador, whereas extreme whiteness is seen in Great Horned Owls from the Northwest Territories and northern sections of the Prairie provinces. As is the general case with hawks and owls, the female Great Horned Owl is considerably larger than the male, averaging about 2 kg to the male’s 1 to 1.5 kg, with a wingspan of about 1.2 m. The only larger owl is the Snowy Owl, a winter migrant to southern Canada, whose maximum weight approaches 3 kg.

Adult Great Horned Owls are formidable predators and have few natural enemies, though some may be killed or seriously injured when attacking large-size prey. It is, for instance, common to find these owls riddled with porcupine quills or reeking of skunk scent. There are accounts of Great Horned Owls attacking snakes and coming off second best. Crows and magpies frequently harass or "mob" roosting owls during the daytime, but this can be scarcely more than a minor annoyance.

Young Great Horned Owls normally do not move far from the area in which they were born: over 90 percent of nestlings that have been banded and later recovered moved less than 80 km.

The Great Horned Owl is found in virtually all of the forested and semi-forested regions of North, Central, and South America, except on the islands of the Caribbean. A close relative, the Eagle Owl, is native to Europe, North Africa, and central Asia.

With no need to make the seasonal migrations that carry other birds from the Arctic Ocean to the Straits of Magellan and back again, Great Horned Owls are likely to be year-round residents of limited hunting ranges of about 8 to 10 km2, throughout their vast region. Such adaptation by a species is truly remarkable and has few parallels in ornithology.

Canadian Wildlife Services

Stuart Arnett
Wildlife Conservation Artist