Great Horned Owl Research Paper

The Great Horned Owl The Great Horned Owl’s scientific name is Bubo virginianus. Its kingdom is Animalia, it’s phylum is chordata, the class is aves, the order is strigiformes, the family is strigidae, it’s genus is bubo and the specie is bubo virginianus. The lifespan is around 5 to 15 years, and the average offspring it has at one birth is 3 or 4 eggs. The average offspring in a lifetime is actually 1 to 6 either per lifetime or season. The reason for this, is because the owls usually keep the same mate, unless the mate dies, which then, the owl will find a new one. The length it takes for the eggs to hatch, is about 30 to 37 days. The owl’s body plan consists of its brown color helping it camoflauge and sneak up on prey. The sharp talons are also for catching prey. The beak is mostly for tearing up meat because of the lack of teeth. The owl of course, is nocturnal, for it hunts during the night. The big yellow eyes help them spot prey and see in the dark. Though, the owls still can hunt during daytime during winter. The sharp talons tear up the meat easily. The big wingspan helps it swoop down onto it’s prey as well as …show more content…
The forest not only helps the owl blend in, but it serves as a home for it as well. The trees help it rest and see prey down below. On the topic of prey, the forest provides many small creatures. Most of those creatures include...rabbits and hares, rats and mice, and voles, although it freely hunts any animal it can overtake, primarily other rodents and small mammals, but also larger mid-sized mammals, various birds,reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. In ornithological study, the great horned owl is often compared to the Eurasian eagle owl, a closely related species which, despite the latter's notably larger size, occupies the same ecological niche in Eurasia, and the red-tailed hawk, with which it often shares similar habitat, prey and nesting habits by day and is thus something of a diurnal ecological