Great horned owl on a stump
Date 1892
Source Popular Science Monthly Volume 41
Author Unknown author
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PSM_V41_D330_Great_horned_owl_on_a_stump.jpg


The Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) is a large owl native to the Americas. It is a powerful, mottled-brown predator that ranges from Arctic tree limits south to the Strait of Magellan. The Great Horned Owls are extremely adaptable birds with a vast range and is the most widely distributed true owl in the Americas. Bubo virginianus is often more than 60 cm long, with a wingspan often approaching 200 cm. Its primary diet is rabbits and hares, rats and mice, and voles, although it freely hunts any animal it can overtake, including rodents and other small mammals, larger mid-sized mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates.

Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
Genus: Bubo
Species: Bubo virginianus (Gmelin, 1788)
Synonyms
- Strix virginiana Gmelin, 1788