Great Horned Owlettes
Happy Saturday!
This week I will be talking about Alberta’s Bird, The Great Horned Owl. Specifically The Great Horned Owlettes.
When Owls are fledglings and small, they are called Owlettes. Baby owls are often referred to as "owlettes" because this term is a playful and affectionate diminutive form of the word "owl." The suffix "-ette" is commonly used in English to create a term that denotes something smaller or younger. In this case, it highlights the adorable and delicate nature of young owls as they begin their lives. This colloquial term captures the charm of these fascinating birds during their early stages, making it easier for people to connect with and appreciate them. While "owlet" is the more widely accepted term in ornithology, "owlette" adds a fun twist that's embraced in popular culture. So let’s dig more into these more vulnerable and innocent offsprings of owls.
Title: Siblings On Guard
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Owl: Great Horned Owl
Owlette Fun Facts
Nesting: Great Horned Owl mothers lay 2 or 3 eggs in these nests and sit on them for about 30 days. After the eggs hatch, the mother and the father will feed the baby owls for another 30 days - and those babies need a lot of food!
The young birds learn to fly well when they are about nine weeks old. They will live about 28 years. How old are you? If you were a Great Horned Owl, would you be pretty old?
Great Horned Owls that live in cold areas fly south to warmer areas during the winter to avoid cold weather.
Nesting Description From Merlin Bird ID: Great Horned Owls typically nest in trees such as cottonwood, juniper, beech, pine, and others. They usually adopt a nest that was built by another species, but they also use cavities in live trees, dead snags, deserted buildings, cliff ledges, and human-made platforms. In the Yukon they nest in white spruces with “witches’ brooms,” which are clumps of dense foliage caused by a fungus. They occasionally nest on the ground. Pairs may roost together near the future nest site for several months before laying eggs.
Nest Description: Merlin Bird ID
Nests often consist of sticks and vary widely in size, depending on which species originally built the nest (usually Red-tailed Hawks, other hawk species, crows, ravens, herons, or squirrels). Great Horned Owls may line the nest with shreds of bark, leaves, downy feathers plucked from their own breast, fur or feathers from prey, or trampled pellets. In some areas they add no lining at all. Nests deteriorate over the course of the breeding season, and are seldom reused in later years.
Title: Eye of The Owl
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Great Horned Owlette
Habitat: Found all across North America up to the northern tree line, Great Horned Owls usually gravitate toward secondary-growth woodlands, swamps, orchards, and agricultural areas, but they are found in a wide variety of deciduous, coniferous or mixed forests. In some areas, such as the southern Appalachians, they prefer old-growth stands. Their home range usually includes some open habitat—such as fields, wetlands, pastures, or croplands—as well as forest. In deserts, they may use cliffs or juniper for nesting. Great Horned Owls are also fairly common in wooded parks, suburban area, and even cities.
Food: Great Horned Owls have the most diverse diet of all North American raptors. Their prey range in size from tiny rodents and scorpions to hares, skunks, geese, and raptors. They eat mostly mammals and birds—especially rabbits, hares, mice, and American Coots, but also many other species including voles, moles, shrews, rats, gophers, chipmunks, squirrels, woodchucks, marmots, prairie dogs, bats, skunks, house cats, porcupines, ducks, loons, mergansers, grebes, rails, owls, hawks, crows, ravens, doves, and starlings. They supplement their diet with reptiles, insects, fish, invertebrates, and sometimes carrion. Although they are usually nocturnal hunters, Great Horned Owls sometimes hunt in broad daylight. After spotting their prey from a perch, they pursue it on the wing over woodland edges, meadows, wetlands, open water, or other habitats. They may walk along the ground to stalk small prey around bushes or other obstacles.
Behavior: Great Horned Owls roost in trees, snags, thick brush, cavities, ledges, and human-made structures. They are active mostly during the night—especially at dusk and before dawn. When food supplies are low they may begin hunting in the evening and continue into the early morning; in winter they may hunt during daylight hours. Mated pairs are monogamous and defend their territories with vigorous hooting, especially in the winter before egg-laying and in the fall when their young leave the area. Great Horned Owls respond to intruders and other threats with bill-clapping, hisses, screams, and guttural noises, eventually spreading their wings and striking with their feet if the threat escalates. They may kill other members of their own species. Crows, ravens, songbirds, and raptors often harass Great Horned Owls with loud, incessant calls and by dive-bombing, chasing, and even pecking them. Unattended eggs and nestlings may fall prey to foxes, coyotes, raccoons, lynx, raptors, crows, and ravens. Both members of a pair may stay within the territory outside of the breeding season, but they roost separately.
Conservation: Great Horned Owls are common and widespread throughout much of the Americas and they adapt well to habitat change as long as nest sites are available. Population size has been fairly steady between 1966 and 2019, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Partners in Flight estimates the global breeding population at 5.7 million and rates it 8 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score, indicating a species of low conservation concern. Great Horned Owls were heavily hunted until the practice was abolished in the mid-twentieth century, but some illegal hunting continues. Because of their prowess as predators, Great Horned Owls can pose a threat to other species of concern, such as Peregrine Falcons and Spotted Owls. Northern populations rise and fall in cycles along with prey populations. Owls are sometimes poisoned by pesticides and other toxic substances that have accumulated in their prey.
Title: Little Owlette Sitting In The Tree
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Great Horned Owlette
Why Is The Great Horned Owl Alberta’s Bird?
The Great Horned Owl is Alberta's provincial bird because it was chosen by a province-wide vote of Albertan children in 1977. This powerful raptor, common throughout Alberta year-round, symbolizes the province's diverse wildlife and the need for habitat protection.
Here's why the Great Horned Owl was chosen:
Symbolism:
The owl represents the province's wildlife and the importance of preserving its habitat.
Popularity:
The vote by Albertan children shows the bird's popularity and connection to the province.
Year-round presence:
The Great Horned Owl is a common resident of Alberta, making it a fitting symbol for the province.
I don’t have much of a personal experience with Great Horned Owls let alone their offspring. As it is Alberta’s Provincial Bird, I rarely come across them. In fact, May 23, 2025 is the first actual time I got to sit and observe the bird in the wilderness. Let alone get the chance to observe an owlette. I have to thank Jack Bawden who helped me find them, a local birder and photographer. We had a great little chat as we quietly watched the two fledglings just chill out on the branch. So without further adieu, I give you my favourite shot from May 23, 2025. I call this one Taking Aim because the fledgling was preparing to scratch itself and caught the moment when we locked eye contact with it’s talons open wide.
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Title: Taking Aim