Great Horned Owls - 2026
I watched a family of Great Horned Owls from not long after four owlets were born until they left the nest. It’s amazing to see how fast they grow from small balls of “fuzz” to being well on their way to being full grown adult owls. This nest had four owlets which kept both the mother and father owls busy keeping them fed. They did a good job though because these baby owlets went from being small balls of fuzz to nearly full grown owls in a matter of weeks. The mother usually stayed fairly close to the nest and the father spent his time a bit further away. Both of the adult owls hunt and once they catch some food they “stash” some of it so that they can bring it to the owlets throughout the day.
_DSC7731 - Great Horned Owlets. The mother owl is also partially in this picture. Can you see her? Maybe this is why owls are so hard to spot in the wild?
_DSC7887 - Mama Great Horned Owl taking a break.
_DSC8005 - Three baby owlets checking things out!
_DSC8175 - Mama Great Horned Owl keeping watch over the nest and her babies.
_DSC8188 - Mama Great Horned Owl keeping watch over the nest and her babies. Occasionally, she would intercede to make sure all the babies got plenty to eat.
_DSC8204 - Mama Great Horned Owl taking a break.
_DSC8265 - Mama Great Horned Owl keeping watch from a distance.
_DSC8310 - Four owlets in the nest. Sometimes it hard to tell where one ends and the next one begins
_DSC8362 - Four baby owlets watching for something interesting. Nothing going on to the right!
_DSC8393 - Four baby owlets watching for something interesting. Nothing going on to the left either!
_DSC8403 - I think I'd better check the back side of the nest to make sure everything's okay. Yep, everything's fine.
_DSC8433 - Four baby owlets changing places in the nest.
_DSC8463 - One of the young owlets venturing to the edge of the nest.
_DSC8687 - Mama is sharing some lunch with the owlets.
_DSC8887 - Mama Great Horned Owl keeping watch over the four owlets.
_DSC9152 - Everyone is keeping an eye out now!
_DSC9180 - Getting anxious to get out of the nest.
_DSC0988 - All of the owlets have left the nest. These two are staying close together but go back to the nest to eat since they haven't learned to feed themselves yet.
_DSC0454 - The smallest owlet sitting on a branch in a distant tree.
_DSC0432 - The adult female Great Horned Owl sitting on a branch where she can see all of her offspring on the different branches.
Great Horned Owl Videos
C0034 - It’s lunch time at the nest. It seems that one of the owlets is always eating. That probably explains how they grow from small balls of “fuzz” to a nearly full grown owls in a about a month.
C0056 - Mama has just dropped off some food for the owlets. They take turns eating and the adult female makes sure that they all get their share.
C0060 - The babies are venturing further and further from the nest. Notice the “fuzz” on the front of each of the owlets. They spend hours pulling the fuzz with their beaks so that they can get their permanent feathers.
C0082 - Owlets out of the nest keeping each other company. This type of interaction is fairly common and a great deal of pushing and shoving in the nest routinely happened.