Pennsylvania is home to eight owl species that are either residents or occasional visitors, including the Barred Owl that is represented in Asbury Woods’ logo. But the one that many people recognize the easiest is the largest and most powerful of the Pennsylvania owls, the Great Horned Owl. These are the owls seen most in TV shows, movies, and advertisements when an owl or its low pitched five syllable hoot is needed for effect.
Great Horned Owls are between 20 -23 inches in length, weighing up to three and a half pounds, and have wing spans up to five feet. They have brown feathers mottled with gray and white, and white upper breast feathers. They are known for the tufts of feathers on their heads. These are neither horns nor ears, but feathers covering the owl’s ear openings. Large, yellow-colored eyes are located on the front of the owl’s head and set in the center of bowl-shaped facial disks that help channel sounds to their ears. Owls have tremendous hearing and night vision.
These owls are able to fly silently through the forest at night. This, along with great hearing, night vision, sharp curved beaks, and strong sharp talons help make them very efficient nocturnal predators. A Great Horned Owl’s diet consists of smaller birds and mammals such as mice to mammals as large as foxes and skunks. They have a poor sense of smell so have no problems with having a skunk for dinner.
Unlike other birds, owls nest and start raising their babies in winter and early spring. You can often hear the call of the male Great Horned, Barred, and Screech owls as early as December as they stake out territory, work to attract a mate and start nesting. Great Horned Owls do not build their own nests but clean up and use old crow or hawk nests. Female Great Horned Owls typically lay their eggs in February. This early nesting is advantageous because when the babies are large enough to start learning how to hunt for food, their prey’s young are starting to leave their homes to start learning how to survive on their own.
If you want to see what a Great Horned Owl looks like up close, we invite you to visit the taxidermy specimen in the exhibit hall of the Nature Center as part of our Year of Wildlife exhibit, Wild About Wildlife: Discovering Pennsylvania’s Native Species. The exhibit can be viewed during regular hours. The Nature Center is free to visit.
