The K M Links Game - November 2024 Week...
Quizzes & Puzzles5 mins ago
Recently when I was walking in the woods in Upstate NY, about 20 Great Horned Owls flew from a medium-sized pine tree. Is this normal for them to be with so many other owls?
No best answer has yet been selected by rainingfire4. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Hi rainingfire. At the risk of incurring your wrath I've been doing a bit of swotting up on owls in your area and wonder whether it might have been Long-Eared Owls you saw. They do roost in numbers up to 50 during the daytime and their size would be more fitting to the number seen.
Great Horned as you know are huge, nearly eagle size and their wingspan up to 5 feet. They begin nesting in the depths of winter - January is the usual time, so apologies if I've guessed wrongly but just have a look at this brilliant Owl website:
Cetti, I do think you are absolutly right. Looking at those pictures on that site, I realize that the owls I saw looked exactly the same as them. I kept going back to the pine tree to try to find them before they flew away and I have trouble finding them even though the tree isn't very dense at all, and in the 2nd link you sent me it says: "When roosting, a Long-eared Owl will stretch its body to make itself appear like a tree branch."
And it says this: "Unlike most other Owls, during winter they may roost communally (7 to 50 Owls) in dense thickets." The owls I saw definitly fit the description of a Long-Eared Owl. Thank you for pointing that out to me!