Field Guide : Great Horned Owl
Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.
This color column has a dark background because the great horned owl is primarily a nocturnal or crepuscular predator – crepuscular means twilight – but great horned owls will, on occasion, hunt during the day, especially when food has been scarce.
Its scientific binomial, Bubo virginianus, translates as “owl of Virginia,” but this owl is one of the world’s most widespread owl species, as common where I live in California as it is in Tidewater Virginia, where I grew up. In fact, the owl’s range extends from the subarctic reaches of Alaska and Canada all the way south to Argentina. 😮 That incredible range is possible because the great horned owl is remarkably opportunistic and adaptable. Because of its wide geographic range, habitat flexibility, and large size, it’s also the owl Americans most often encounter.
The subspecies that served as the model for this color column is B. v. virginianus, the variety I knew on the Eastern Shore of Virginia as a child, occurring across most of the eastern United States, with northern limits in southern Canada, southern limits along the Gulf of Mexico, and western limits about Minnesota down to eastern Texas. The large owls occasionally targeted the chickens that my family raised. Based on my father’s accounts, their attacks usually occurred just before dawn. An owl would drop from a perch high above our chicken yard, falling on the early bird rooster as he emerged from the coop. After pinning the protesting rooster to the ground, the raptor would use its powerful beak to decapitate the chicken. Then, body of its prey securely in its grasp, the bird would lift wraith-like from the ground and carry the body into the twilight.
The “horns” of the common name refer to the owl’s prominent feather tufts. These are often called “ear tufts,” but they aren’t associated with the owl’s ears. Some ornithologists prefer the term plumicorns, a word derived from the Latin pluma, meaning “soft feather,” and corn, Latin for “horn.” “Soft feather horns” works for me! The plumicorns help break up the owl’s silhouette when it is resting/hiding during daylight, but they are also used for communication. When an owl draws the plumicorns back and against its head, it indicates aggression or defensiveness. When they are erect, they indicate excitement or alertness. (Great horned owl ears – the actual ears, that is – are not asymmetrical. Schoolchildren – including my own – are sometimes taught that all owl species have asymmetrically placed ears, a physiology that provides a hunting advantage, but this ear asymmetry occurs in only some owl species, and not in the great horned owl, which has more or less symmetrically placed ears like our own. Yes, the Wikipedia entry is incorrect.)
Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).
Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.
Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.
This color column has a dark background because the great horned owl is primarily a nocturnal or crepuscular predator – crepuscular means twilight – but great horned owls will, on occasion, hunt during the day, especially when food has been scarce.
Its scientific binomial, Bubo virginianus, translates as “owl of Virginia,” but this owl is one of the world’s most widespread owl species, as common where I live in California as it is in Tidewater Virginia, where I grew up. In fact, the owl’s range extends from the subarctic reaches of Alaska and Canada all the way south to Argentina. 😮 That incredible range is possible because the great horned owl is remarkably opportunistic and adaptable. Because of its wide geographic range, habitat flexibility, and large size, it’s also the owl Americans most often encounter.
The subspecies that served as the model for this color column is B. v. virginianus, the variety I knew on the Eastern Shore of Virginia as a child, occurring across most of the eastern United States, with northern limits in southern Canada, southern limits along the Gulf of Mexico, and western limits about Minnesota down to eastern Texas. The large owls occasionally targeted the chickens that my family raised. Based on my father’s accounts, their attacks usually occurred just before dawn. An owl would drop from a perch high above our chicken yard, falling on the early bird rooster as he emerged from the coop. After pinning the protesting rooster to the ground, the raptor would use its powerful beak to decapitate the chicken. Then, body of its prey securely in its grasp, the bird would lift wraith-like from the ground and carry the body into the twilight.
The “horns” of the common name refer to the owl’s prominent feather tufts. These are often called “ear tufts,” but they aren’t associated with the owl’s ears. Some ornithologists prefer the term plumicorns, a word derived from the Latin pluma, meaning “soft feather,” and corn, Latin for “horn.” “Soft feather horns” works for me! The plumicorns help break up the owl’s silhouette when it is resting/hiding during daylight, but they are also used for communication. When an owl draws the plumicorns back and against its head, it indicates aggression or defensiveness. When they are erect, they indicate excitement or alertness. (Great horned owl ears – the actual ears, that is – are not asymmetrical. Schoolchildren – including my own – are sometimes taught that all owl species have asymmetrically placed ears, a physiology that provides a hunting advantage, but this ear asymmetry occurs in only some owl species, and not in the great horned owl, which has more or less symmetrically placed ears like our own. Yes, the Wikipedia entry is incorrect.)
Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).
Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.
Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.
This color column has a dark background because the great horned owl is primarily a nocturnal or crepuscular predator – crepuscular means twilight – but great horned owls will, on occasion, hunt during the day, especially when food has been scarce.
Its scientific binomial, Bubo virginianus, translates as “owl of Virginia,” but this owl is one of the world’s most widespread owl species, as common where I live in California as it is in Tidewater Virginia, where I grew up. In fact, the owl’s range extends from the subarctic reaches of Alaska and Canada all the way south to Argentina. 😮 That incredible range is possible because the great horned owl is remarkably opportunistic and adaptable. Because of its wide geographic range, habitat flexibility, and large size, it’s also the owl Americans most often encounter.
The subspecies that served as the model for this color column is B. v. virginianus, the variety I knew on the Eastern Shore of Virginia as a child, occurring across most of the eastern United States, with northern limits in southern Canada, southern limits along the Gulf of Mexico, and western limits about Minnesota down to eastern Texas. The large owls occasionally targeted the chickens that my family raised. Based on my father’s accounts, their attacks usually occurred just before dawn. An owl would drop from a perch high above our chicken yard, falling on the early bird rooster as he emerged from the coop. After pinning the protesting rooster to the ground, the raptor would use its powerful beak to decapitate the chicken. Then, body of its prey securely in its grasp, the bird would lift wraith-like from the ground and carry the body into the twilight.
The “horns” of the common name refer to the owl’s prominent feather tufts. These are often called “ear tufts,” but they aren’t associated with the owl’s ears. Some ornithologists prefer the term plumicorns, a word derived from the Latin pluma, meaning “soft feather,” and corn, Latin for “horn.” “Soft feather horns” works for me! The plumicorns help break up the owl’s silhouette when it is resting/hiding during daylight, but they are also used for communication. When an owl draws the plumicorns back and against its head, it indicates aggression or defensiveness. When they are erect, they indicate excitement or alertness. (Great horned owl ears – the actual ears, that is – are not asymmetrical. Schoolchildren – including my own – are sometimes taught that all owl species have asymmetrically placed ears, a physiology that provides a hunting advantage, but this ear asymmetry occurs in only some owl species, and not in the great horned owl, which has more or less symmetrically placed ears like our own. Yes, the Wikipedia entry is incorrect.)
Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).
Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.