110: Great Horned Owl
It is time for Great Horned Owls to look for some previously-occupied nest real estate – usually made by Red-Tailed hawks, Bald Eagles, herons, or squirrels – and settle down to lay eggs. Great Horned Owls mate for life, and their courtship happens in the depths of winter. As the largest owl in Colorado – and the largest “tufted” owl in North America – this serious predator can generally do what it wants. In fact, its nickname is the “Tiger Owl”.
They are highly adaptable and live almost everywhere in North America – anywhere there are rocks and trees! They will also eat anything, from geese to scorpions. They are the most dangerous predator for the American Crow, so groups of that bird will mob an owl and harass it for hours to try to move it out of their territory. The Great Horned Owl’s wide range means that they have different coloration in different environments – for example, in the Pacific Northwest, they are dark and sooty-colored, whereas in the Southwest they are paler and greyer.
For the Cheyenne tribe, owls represented the world of night and the afterlife – in fact, the Cheyenne word for “ghost” is the same as “owl”. A rare Cheyenne depiction of owls comes from this 1879 drawing made by Cheyenne prisoners held in the Dodge City, Kansas, jail.