Great Horned Owl in the Chugach

It's a strange thing to find yourself between two waring owls in the middle of a territorial dispute. But recently, while up in the Chugach Mountains, this is exactly what happened as two adult great horned owls postured and called and crowed back and forth on either side of me.

It wasn’t long before one of the owls backed down and flew off. Instantly, the reigning champion swooped in to the retreating owls perch in triumph. And almost as quickly, we recognized the potential for this photography, with the mountains in the background veiled in clouds that ebbed and flowed like so much fog up and down the valley.

Racing up the steep hill across from us to compose the owl in front of this backdrop, the extraordinary size of the owl’s “horns” or “ears” suddenly became apparent. Personally I had never seen such an exaggerated tuft of feathers on one of these birds that seem to surpass even those of the long eared owl.

These so-called horns are a curious thing. Many different species of owls carry such adornments around the world. The leading hypothesis is that they serve a protective function in the form of camouflage for these owls.

Whenever I think about the horns of a great horned owl or those of the even larger Eurasian eagle owl, I can’t help but to wonder what on Earth once preyed upon these massive raptors. Great horned owls are the apex avian predator of the night in North America. They pluck sleeping peregrine falcons from their perches and even snatch up bobcats as they hunt the forest floor. And yet, at some time in their evolutionary history, there was someone even bigger who once saw the great horned owl as a menu item.