A great horned owl has feather tufts on its head that look like horns. The feather tufts on a great horned owl's head are not ears. They are tufts of feathers. A great horned owl has large yellow eyes, and female great horned owls are larger than males. An adult great horned owl is between 18 and 25 inches long, and an average adult weighs about 3.1 pounds.

A great horned owl hunts mostly at night. It has keen hearing and keen vision in low light. An owl turns its head to look around, because its eyes do not move in the sockets. An owl can turn its head about 270 degrees, which is three-quarters of the way around a circle. A great horned owl's hoot is low and deep. You can hear great horned owls hooting at night in winter.

Special flight feathers let an owl fly down silently. A great horned owl watches from a high perch, then swoops down to catch its food. Great horned owls eat rabbits, rats and squirrels. Up to 90 percent of a great horned owl's diet is mice, voles, squirrels and other small mammals. A great horned owl swallows small prey whole. It coughs up pellets of the bones and fur it cannot digest.

Great horned owls start nesting early, in winter. Great horned owls do not build their own nests, and they use nests built by other large birds, such as hawks and crows. A great horned owl usually lays two or three eggs, and baby great horned owls are covered with down when they hatch.

While the female great horned owl sits on the eggs, the male brings her food. Both parents help feed the young owls, and young great horned owls leave the nest and climb out onto nearby branches at about 5 to 6 weeks old. Young great horned owls can fly well at about 9 to 10 weeks old.

Words to know

• sockets: eye holes
• perch: a high seat
• prey: hunted animals
• pellets: small lumps
• down: soft feathers

The short version

A great horned owl has feather tufts on its head that look like horns. It hunts mostly at night, watching from a high perch and then swooping down to catch its food. Great horned owls live across most of North America, in the country and in cities.

Quick facts

• A great horned owl has feather tufts on its head that look like horns, but the tufts are not ears.
• A great horned owl hunts mostly at night.
• An owl can turn its head about 270 degrees, which is three-quarters of the way around a circle.
• Up to 90 percent of a great horned owl's diet is mice, voles, squirrels and other small mammals.
• An adult great horned owl is between 18 and 25 inches long.