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Great Gray Owl

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Raptors

Scientific Classification

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Conservation
Scientific name: Strix nebulosa
Family name: Strigidae

Are they endangered? They are not endangered worldwide.  [IUCN Red list: Least concern].     

What are their past/present problems?  Their main problem is habitat loss that causes it to have less prey than it needs to live.

What do they look like?  This owl has a long tail and a big head. It is a gray owl that has yellow eyes and a white mustache.  Its face looks like a disk with circles around it.  The shape helps to catch sounds that get sent to their ears.

Great Gray Owl
How big are they?  They are about 24-33 inches long.  The wings—when they are open all the way, are about 5 feet wide.
How many eggs do they lay?  The female lays 2-5 white eggs once a year.  The eggs hatch in 5 weeks.
How long do the fledglings stay in the nest?  They like nests that have been left by other birds.  Young birds [fledglings] stay in the nest for a month. 
When do they hunt?  They mostly hunt during the night and sometimes during the day.  They wait in a tall tree and swoop down to get their prey.
What do they eat?  They eat small mammals, rodents [MICE], birds, and insects.
Where do they live?  They live in Canada, China, Sweden, United States, Ukraine, and Norway.
What kind of place do they like to live in?  They like to live in pine forests and wetlands with trees.
Interesting facts:
When these owls are living in areas where there is food, they don’t migrate even if it’s winter.
These owls can hear so well that they can fly down and grab animals that are hidden underneath the snow.
Great Gray Owls are one of the biggest owls in North America.
These owls have the biggest facial disk out of all the owls.


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Works Cited:

Alderfer, Jonathan.  Complete Birds of North America.  Washington, D.C.:  National Geographic, 2006.

Alsop, Fred.  Birds of North America.  New York:  DK Publishing, 2001.

Great Gray Owl.  4 Sept. 2007.  <http://www.peregrinefund.org/Explore_Raptors/owls/gretgrey.html>.

“Great gray owl.”  Encyclopedia of Animals.  2006 ed.

Strix nebulosa.  12 Nov. 2007.  <http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/48551/all>.

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