March 7, 2011 by Take A Hike Arizona
AT Take A Hike Arizona, we like to keep things fun and light-hearted and we love when children (especially our own) show a growing interest in our beautiful desert! Well, my 10 year old daughter actually wrote this report about the beautiful Great Horned Owls that we have here in our desert. I thought she did a great job of keeping it simple and interesting. So, I wanted to share it with you. If you have any questions or comments about anything, please feel free to post comments below and if you like what you read, let us know that too. I’m sure my daughter would love to hear from you!
The Great Horned Owl
The Great Horned Owl is one of twenty types of owls living in North America. This report will tell about what the owl looks like, where it lives, what it eats and drinks, and will also give you some interesting facts about it. I found this bird to be fascinating and I hope you will too.
The Great Horned Owl is brown and gray. It has big yellow eyes, a white throat, two feathery horns on top of its head called tufts, and gold colored disks made from feathers that frame its face. The owl has four powerful toes with very sharp claws called talons. The Great Horned Owl is one of the biggest types of owls and grows to be as big as two feet tall with a 3 ½ foot wingspan.
Like many animals, the Great Horned Owl drinks only water. It eats small mammals, birds, small reptiles, and insects. It does not eat plants. It is purely a meat eater, in other words, a carnivore. The owl eats its prey whole. However, the owl cannot digest all of the parts of its prey such as the fur, bones, feathers and teeth. So it ends up spitting these parts it cannot digest back out. These parts that are spit back out are owl pellets.
Great Horned Owls are common in both North and South America. You can find them in deserts, mountains, woodlands, canyons, near water, and in cities and suburbs. Usually these owls use the old nests of hawks, crows, ravens and other birds. It will also use existing holes found in cactus, trees and rock cliffs as its home.
The Great Horned Owl has excellent hearing. It is able to hear a mouse moving beneath a foot of snow! The owl is sometimes called a cat owl because of the tufts on its head. But, the tufts on its head are not ears at all! Its ears are actually holes found on the side of its head. What’s really interesting is that one of the owl’s ears is set higher than the other. By moving its head to equalize sound, the owl can align the source of the sound with its line of vision.
It also has excellent eye sight. However, its eyes do not move, they are fixed in place in its head. The owl has to move its head to see what is around it. Even though it looks like it can turn its head in a complete circle, the owl cannot turn its head all the way around. It can turn its head 180 degrees each way. The owl does not see in color, it only sees black, white and shades of gray. An owl’s eyes do not work as well during the day as they do at night. They can see when there is hardly any light at all.
A few more interesting facts about the owl is that it can fly silently. This helps it to hunt at night. Also, the Great Horned Owl is one of the very few animals in the world that will kill skunks and porcupines. This owl is so fearless that it is sometimes called the flying tiger. Owls do not form flocks. They always hunt alone. Also, did you know that they rarely fly in rain because their feathers are not waterproof?
There are many more facts to learn about the Great Horned Owl. This report provided some information on what the owl looks like, where it lives, and what it eats and drinks. I hope you enjoyed my report about the owl as much as I enjoyed learning about it myself.
Bibliography
Tekiela, Stan. Birds of Arizona. Adventure Publications, Inc., 2003
Bessesen, Brooke. Look Who Lives in the Desert!. Arizona Highways, 2004
Jackson, Tom. Owls. Grolier, 2008
Gray, Mary Taylor. Watchable Birds of the Southwest. Mountain Press Publishing
Company,1998
One Response to “The Great Horned Owl”
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Great writing Erin!
I even learned a thing or two about the great horned owl. I sometimes hear them at night sitting on my chimmney. I once went to a presentation where there was a great horned owl and you could not hear a sound when the owl flapped it’s wings. They are called the stealth killer of the night as well. Thanks for posting your book report. I’m sure you got an A+.
Your friendly guide,
June