Nemo

What I have noticed about owls in general is that they are very "still."   Most birds I know tend to move more when they are perched.   I wondered if this is a raptor characteristics, but other raptors seem to move more than owls.   This may make them look "wiser" or even "creepier " when their heads suddenly turn? I think owls are the birds whose calls are most used intentionally in the movies.  Rarely do calls and images match.  This seems to show owls, along with ravens, have been placed uniquely as objects onto which humans project their thoughts and emotions; thus seen as evil, creepy, and fascinating.   Little owl was associated with Greek goddess Athena.

The wide range of the diet of the Great Horneds.  There is one chapter dedicated to the diet of this species in "The Owl Papers" by Jonathan Evan Maslow.  He quotes "the partial list of items in the Great Horned  Owl's diet"  by Dr. A. K. Fisher, "after dissecting some hundreds of owl stomaches, ...three species of rabbits, cotton rat, two species of pocket gofer, two species of wood rat, chipmunk, two species of grass hopper mice, white footed mouse, common rat, two species of ground squirrels, musk rat, fox squirrel, five species of meadow mice, house mouse, flying squirrel, common shrew, kangaroo rat, scorpions and crawfish." I also read the Great Horneds take down skunks..  How good is their sense of smell?? Another fascination point is the size of prey - I'm always amused by the optimistic and bold choice of prey of the pygmy owls - I read they take down prey larger than themselves (and sometimes lose...)

Hello, I live in Canada, close to Banff National Park.  Here I have seen Great Gray regularly, mostly perched on tree branches.  One was apparently juvenile and perched on a very low branch, curiously looking at my friend and me on a hike, showing very little fear.   We stopped and marveled him/her quite a long time.  He did not fly off. I have also seen Great Horned owls in flight twice, on the ground once (he flew down in front of my car, stopped at the intersection!)  and in the tree quite a few times.  The sighting locations vary from here to California.  One in flight came gliding by very close and I did not hear any sound.  It was eerie (in a very magical way), magnificent and outlandishly beautiful.   I think this one has taken a couple of cats in the neighborhood.   We also had one breeding pair in a park, for which the whole neighborhood had an opportunities to observe the pair and two young chicks. One species I have longed to see, but only heard is a spotted owl in Jedediah National Forest Park.  I jumped out of the tent and looked for one, but no luck!  I spoke to the ranger next day and she confirmed it was a spotted owl.... I have heard and seen a barn owl, on a small island of Japan as well.  We were in the retreat and the shriek shocked all us! South Africa offered me opportunities to see quite a few including Pel's Fishing Owl, White-faced owl, Eagle owl and one small owl (I could not identify the species - possibly bared owlet or pearl spotted)- Fishing owl was in Umfolozi Reserve.  I could not locate this owl for the life of me, and when I finally caught him on my binoculars, he was staring into the lens.   The small unidentified owl was definitely a male, as he was hooting incessantly around my tent, to the extent that the ranger started referring him as my owl.   I went to sleep a couple of nights listening to him hoot... That was the best experience of the entire trip.