The Great Horned Owl

Assalamualaikum, Hello everyone!
This time I want to describe about one of owl that is native to America, The Great Horned Owl or also known as Tiger Owl or Hoot Owl. My description about The Great Horned Owl will be divided into two parts.


Species Classification

The species Great Horned Owl or in the scientific name is Bubo Virginianus make up the genus Bubo, along with Eagle Owl. The genus name Bubo is Latin for Eurasian eagle-owl.
The Kingdom of Great Horned Owl is Animalia with Phylum Chordata and sub-phylum Vertebrata. It is also a Eumetazoa and a bilateria that means bilaterally symmetrical animals. From those classifications, we can conclude that The Great Horned Owl is an animal that has a backbone.

The Great Horned Owl also make up the superclass Gnathostomata and Euteleostomi which is the scientific name for jawed vertebrates and bony vertebrates respectively. While the class is Aves or the class for birds. It also makes up the subclass Neognathae, Infraclass Neoaves, and Order Strigiformes. The order Strigiformes is classified as owls. The Horned Owl is from the family of Strigidae, which is typical owls.

The Great Horned Owls also have several subspecies. For example, Bubo virginianus elachistus, Bubo virginianus lagophonus, Bubo virginianus heterocnemis, Bubo virginianus mayensis, Bubo virginianus magellanicus, Bubo virginianus nigrescens, and Bubo virginianus pacificus

 Mortality and Breeding
The Great Horned Owl is a long-lived owl, the captive birds have been known to live for about 30 years while the wild owls are up to 13 years. The wide gap of lifespan between the captive owl and wild owl is caused by man-- shootings, traps, road kills, and electrocutions. Their only natural enemies are other Great Horned Owls, Peregrine Falcon, and occasionally, Northern Goshawk during disputes over nest sites

For the breeding, the nesting season is in January or February when the males and females hoot to each other. When close they bow to each other, with drooped wings. Mutual bill rubbing and preening also occur. For the nest, They do not build a nest of their own but utilize the nests of other birds such as the hawk, crow, and heron. They may also use squirrel nests, hollows in trees, rocky caves, clumps of witches broom, abandoned buildings, or artificial platforms. They are extremely aggressive when defending the nest and will continue to attack until the intruder is killed or driven off. 

Normally, two to four eggs are laid and incubated by the female only for 26-35 days. The young owls start roaming from the nest onto nearby branches at 6 to 7 weeks, but cannot fly well until 9 to 10 weeks old. They are fed for another few weeks as they are slowly weaned. Families remain loosely associated during summer before the young owls disperse in the autumn. Adults tend to remain near their breeding areas year-round while juveniles disperse widely, over 250 km in the autumn. Territories are maintained by the same pair for as many as 8 consecutive years, however, these Owls are solitary in nature, only staying with their mate during the nesting season. Average home ranges in various studies have been shown to be approximately 2.5 square km.

Habitat and Distribution

The breeding habitat of the great horned owl extends high into the subarctic of North America, where they are found up to the northwestern and southern Mackenzie Mountains, Keewatin, Ontario, northern Manitoba, Fort Chimo in Ungava, Okak, Newfoundland and Labrador, Anticosti Island and Prince Edward Island. It is found in a range of habitats that includes deciduous, coniferous, and mixed forests, pampas, prairie, swamps, deserts, tundra edges, mountainous areas, deserts, rocky coasts, mangrove swamp forests, tropical rainforests, cities, suburbs, and parks. 

They are commonly found in North America from the northern treeline and then in Central and South America. They are resident year-round, however, birds living in the northern part of the species' range may migrate south. They are also distributed throughout most of North and very spottily in Central America and then down into South America south to upland regions of Argentina, Bolivia and Peru, before they give way to the Magellanic horned owl, which thence ranges all the way to Tierra del Fuego, the southern tip of the continent.



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