The Great Horned Owl nestling in the top photo looks as if it was posing for the ‘cutest baby owl contest.’ It is a very young owl as it still has some of the white down that covered it when it hatched from an egg only weeks before I took this photo. Great Horned Owls are found throughout the continental U.S. plus most of Alaska and Canada and even into South America.
The baby Great Horned Owl in the photo above is a very recently hatched baby that is covered in it’s natal white down. Great Horned Owls in the southern U.S. begin nesting as early as November but in more northern areas they nest in winter and their babies are hatched in the spring.
This hatchling owl is just a little older than the one in the top photo as it has a lot of the distinctive mottled feathers that are found on Great Horned Owls and it has much less of it’s natal white down.
Here are the baby owls all together in their tree stump nest. I find their big eyes beguiling.
Have you seen baby owls before?
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Delightful photos! You are blessed to have a place to see them, and capture on film. I would love to have some to photograph so I could paint them.
Thanks Lanelle, baby owls are very engaging.
We live in southern California and for the past 8 years a great horned owl pair have had two babies every year around February. After they fledge the babies sit on the street lights and cry for mommy to feed them but little do they know that they’re on their own – but she’s never too far away! 3 months later the parents kick them out of the canyon to find their own place to live – just like our kids going off to college!
Hi Jenny-that is wonderful that you have this faithful Great Horned Owl pair and you sure have their patterns down pat. It certainly is like kids going off to college.
I have never seen babies but I would like to! How can we attract owls?