Birds of a Feather is back with our new blog, Birding and Bonding! Our previous objective remains the same. Our goal is to find all birds that live on Long Island year round. The only rule is that in order to add a bird to our list, we must see it when we are together. That's where the bonding comes in. Life can get so hectic that we sometimes fail to enjoy the more important things. This gives us a wonderful outlet to make sure we take the time.

Of course, Long Island has many migratory birds, as well. We certainly don't want to ignore them. We will blog about them as well. Armed with new cameras and renewed incentive, we look forward to getting back on the birding trail!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

The Great Horned Owl

Let me start by saying I haven't ever seen a Great Horned Owl in the wild.  I have though heard them in the woods across the street from my house.  It's a call I am sure many of us have heard, the call is a deep hooting "hoo-h'HOO--hoo-hoo."

The Great Horned Owl is one of the most widespread and common owls in North America. Here are some cool facts about this owl.

They use a variety of nest sites, including trees, cliffs, buildings, and the ground. And they don't make their own nests. They typically take over nests in trees made by other bird species. They often put nests in hollows or broken-off snags in trees.

The Great Horned Owl will take large prey, even other raptorial birds. It regularly kills and eats other owls, and is an important predator on nestling Ospreys. This interesting tidbit is the reason for this particular blog. 

About two weeks ago I was yet again laying in my hammock (By the way, it may seem like I spend a lot of time in my hammock, but I really don't), and when we were putting the cover on it I noticed what looked to be a kill site.  There were feathers everywhere.  Red feathers, so I sent this picture and called my fellow expert birder San to see what she thought. 

We ruled out every bird we could think of that might have these colored feathers.  So I kept looking around and I found the skeleton that went with these feathers.  I know this may seem a tad on the morbid side, but birding involves the entire circle of life. 


Once I examined the skull of this rather large bird I realized that it had to be a Red Tailed Hawk.  So now that I knew what the prey was, it was easy to figure out who the predator was.  In our area, other than humans, Hawk aren't really hunted by anything other than the Great Horned Owl.

Not a happy find, but I was glad I was able to find out what happened to this beautiful creature.
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1 comment:

  1. Marlies DemaleAugust 11, 2012 at 11:41 PM

    We just had a great horned owl perched on the peak of our roof. He hooted three times then flew off. I believe he was a adult because of his size and his horns prominent. It was just getting dark and my husband drove onto the driveway and heard the "Hoo Hoo Hoo" and thought someone was kidding around and then looked up and seen the Great Horned Owl and called us outside to see. We live in Calgary, AB, Canada close to the BowRiver.

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