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. It has large yellow eyes. An adult great horned owl is between 18 and 25 inches long, and an average adult weighs about 3.1 pounds. Its wingspan can reach about 1.5 meters (5 feet).

A great horned owl hunts mostly at night, and 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. The hoot of a great horned owl is low and deep, and you can hear great horned owls hooting at night in winter.

A great horned owl watches from a high perch, then swoops down to catch its food, and special flight feathers let an owl fly down silently. Great horned owls eat rabbits, rats and squirrels, and 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, and it coughs up pellets of the bones and fur it cannot digest.

Mated great horned owls stay in their territory all year, and they start nesting early, in winter. Great horned owls do not build their own nests, but they use nests built by other large birds, such as hawks and crows. A great horned owl usually lays two or three eggs, and the eggs hatch in about a month. While the female sits on the eggs, the male brings her food.

Baby great horned owls are covered with down when they hatch. Both parents help feed the young owls, and they care for young great horned owls for up to several months. Young great horned owls leave the nest and climb out onto nearby branches at about 5 to 6 weeks old. They can fly well at about 9 to 10 weeks old.

Words to know

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