Great
Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus
Above, an adult Great Horned Owl of the eastern type, in Florida, with a tawny-orange
face, and some orange coloration on the body. Compare the gray-faced southwestern
type, from Arizona, below.
All the images on the rest of this page come from the same spot, the row of
palm trees along the creek at Agua Caliente Park in Tucson. The adult photos
above and below show either one or both of the parents of the fledgling shown
in the next two pictures down. The adult(s) were photographed while watching over
the recently fledged bird from the row of palms. The nestlings shown at the
bottom of the page were photographed on a nest in the same area a year earlier.
An adult owl rotating its head 180 degrees to keep an eye on its recently fledged
offspring in a nearby mesquite tree, shown in the two bottom photos.
This young bird had just fledged within the last three days when the pictures
above and below were taken in 2010, showing it in a mesquite a few yards from
the row of palm trees where the nest was, and from which the adults were
watching. The bird looks to be about equally downy as the young birds still in
the nest in 2009, shown at the bottom of the page, probably because the 2010
nestling had fallen out of the nest before it could fly. Park rangers supplied a box
for it, and the parents continued to feed it until it fledged.
Three young birds on the nest, April 2009.