RANGE & HABITAT
The American or great horned owl is found throughout Utah, as well as most of North, Central and South America. It inhabits and adapts to forests of all kinds, as well as canyons, valleys, parks, mountains and deserts, from subarctic settings to mangrove swamps.
DESCRIPTION
Large and variable in overall color, great horned owls often have mottled feathers with dark brown bars. The throat is generally white and underparts barred black and white. Northernmost representatives can be entirely white. Flexible necks - with about 270 degrees of motion - allow these owls, which cannot otherwise move their eyes, to turn their heads to look sideways. Highly visible hornlike tufts on the ears give the birds their name. Males weigh up to 3 1/2 pounds, females up to 51/2 pounds, with adult wingspans of 45 to 60 inches.
DIET AND HABITS
Fierce and aggressive, great horned owls hunt primarily in the twilight and dark. They have excellent hearing and binocular vision about 100 times more powerful than a human's. They eat almost any living prey, including mammals (such as rodents and rabbits), insects and birds - and other owls. They prefer to swallow their meals whole. Indigestible bones, hair and feathers are compressed and regurgitated as pellets.
Sources: The Hawk Conservancy and the Henson Robinson Zoo