Visiting a Great Horned Owl's Nest, Part 1

I have been wanting to photograph a Great Horned Owl ever since I started taking photos of birds a few years ago. A friend that knows my love for photographing birds notified me that an owl's nest had been spotted in his private neighborhood. I was invited to go and take a look. Here are some photos of the Great Horned Owl's nest, another life bird for me!

As my friend pointed to the large nest high in an evergreen tree, what I saw took my breath away. A large female Great Horned Owl stood in the back of the nest protecting her two nestlings. A wonderful find and a "life bird" for me.

The mom appeared to be tolerant of the activity below as one of her nestlings peaked over the nest looking out into their new world.

Great Horned Owl, Buto virginianus measures 22 inches long with a wingspan of 44 inches. Females are larger and some may be as much as 25 inches long with a wingspan of 57 inches. They do not build a nest but take over an existing one that may belong to an eagles, hawk or raven, or nest in a large hollow of a dead tree. Sometimes they will use the side of a cliff. Owls often reuse the nest. This nest was a Red-tailed Hawk's nest before it was taken over by the owls.

The female usually lays 2 to 4 eggs. She will do all the incubating and the male will do all the hunting while she sits on the eggs and he brings her prey. After the eggs are laid, they will hatch in about 35 days. The male will bring prey back to the nest as the mom will brood the tiny nestlings. Soon, both male and female will need to hunt to provide food for the growing hungry youngsters. A family of two adult Great Horned Owls with two young will need to capture at least 6 or more rodents a night. They are opportunistic hunters and hunt mostly at night from about 8:00pm to 12 midnight and early in the morning from 4 am to dawn.

When the owls are young and still too small to swallow a rat whole, the female will tear the prey into manageable size for the youngsters to swallow. The young owls grow quickly and soon they will be swallowing the rodents whole just like the adults. About 8 hours after a meal, they will eject one or two pellets through the mouth. Pellets are undigested fur, bone, or feathers and other things that are not digestible. They become compacted and are regurgitated out (coughed out) to rid it from their system. The nestling on the left of this photo is in the process of coughing up a pellet.

 

Great Horned Owls are opportunistic hunters. They will take rats, rabbits,snakes, skunks, opossum and other birds.  They have been documented taking other owls', hawks' and ospreys' fledglings and even raiding eagles' nests. A close-up of the nestlings. The one on the left is still  trying hard to bring up a pellet. 

Finally the nestling succeeds in coughing up a pellet and turns around to get comfort from Mom. I decide to leave and come back again in a few days.

  
Here is a photo of a pellet that I found under the nest tree.

 

I am back about 8:30 am and the lighting is much better. The mom is quite alert and makes for a nice pose. The nestlings are sleeping.

Good morning cutie! One of the nestlings wakes and looks to check on the activities down below. Several people with dogs are out for their morning walks.

Close-up.

Look at those eyes. The Great Horned Owl has very large eyes. They cannot move their eyes up or down or side to-side like humans but they can rotate their heads 270 degrees. If these owls were the size of humans, they would have eyes the size of oranges!  Info from Holden arboretum website.

These nestlings must be around 3 weeks old. The pinfeathers are unfurling and taking the place of the downy natal feathers. 

Look at those talons on mom. They have a squeezing strength of about 300 lbs. 

 

I can see the second nestling in the background moving around.

Close-up.

Here's Mom. Those ears are feathers. The striping and barring patterns on the owl makes for a perfect camouflage. Some people call them tiger owls because of the stripe pattern on the front. 

A cute shot of both of the nestlings.

 

I found a small downy owl feather on the ground near the nest tree. It is about 2 inches long.

A nice stretch of his wing.

A close-up of the nestling's wing. You can see the pinfeathers unfurling. These will be his flight feathers. Soon they will be "wingersizing" and building up their flight muscles.

Another look at the outstretched wing. 

A nice pose.

A close-up. You can see the little "ears" which are really tufts of  feathers called plumicorns. Their ear is located on the sides of their heads. One on his right is set slightly higher than the other. The opening is also amazing because one opening points upward and the other points downward. All of these unique qualities give them excellent hearing for finding prey at night.

A super pose by the cutie.

Hello! The little guy is looking right at me. What a cutie. 

I think he is panting. It has been unusually warm today. Birds cannot sweat, they control their temperature by panting like dogs. They will not be able to get water until they fledge and find a water source. All the liquid that they get is from the prey that they eat. 

Went looking for the dad. A lady told me to look in all the nearby palms. I found the male Great Horned Owl in a tall palm tree located about 20 ft away from the nest tree. He sure blends in well with his surrounding.

Going back to check on the nestlings. This time the other baby is stretching his wings. He may be the slightly older one. Maybe about 2 or 3 days older. His feathers are slightly more unfurled than the other nestling's. 

 Close-up of the pinfeathers

 

The two babies up and looking out. The one on the right photo looks slightly bigger.

A good look at the two nestlings. What an amazing opportunity it has been for me. I am so grateful to be able to photograph these wonderful birds.

Close-up

They will start branching soon and when they are about 6 weeks old, they will be ready to fledge. 

Close-up . The females can be up to 1/3 bigger than the males. 

My goodness, the little one is getting really sleepy.

Dogs playing and barking wakes the little one up in a hurry. 

One last look at these adorable nestlings.

 Walking past the dad again and he is keeping one eye open for any threats to his family. 

A Spotted Towhee shows up near the trail. He is wet and enjoying the sunshine.

He starts to sing and I get a shot of him with his bill wide open. The male and the female look alike but the female has a dark brown head instead of the black head of the males.

This Anna's Hummingbird just came back form slurping some nectar from the nearby flowering tree. Her tongue is still hanging out.

On my way back to my car, I spot a bird that appears to be a Pacific-slope Flycatcher. 

Profile.

Lots of Kingbirds in the area. I believe these to be Cassin's Kingbirds. 

One flies off his perch and as I raise my camera and grab a focus, he snags a large insect from the air.

Looks like a large wasp.

As he grabs the insect, he turns and heads back to his perch. What a fantastic day of birding. I will be back checking on the nestlings until they fledge.

 

Have a super day everyone!