Great horned owls: Spectacular take-offs and landings 

Our pleasure, Liana.

They really are quite something. When they're visiting the nesting site we sit quietly outside in the evening in hopes that we'll watch them fly in. It's very exciting.

Thank you, Alejandra! Are you in Spain? I'm afraid we don't know much about Spanish wildlife, but we have visited Spain many times.

@@TexasBackyardWildlife Yes North Spain.

Thank you very much, Paul.

You lucky person! We haven't seen a great horned owl here for a couple of years. We really miss them.

@@TexasBackyardWildlife Camera shy maybe :) A few years ago we had a pair that for several weeks visited our suburban backyard (Pflugerville) in the evening. It was a wonderful treat and we felt so special. Maybe they tired of me photographing them!

Thank you, JJ. We're lucky to be able to watch these owls up close with the cameras. The slow-motion and the still photos really show how big and how beautiful they are.

Thank you Peter!!

I agree, Ahati. For more great narration, I recommend Bob Gymlan, try his channel!

@@devodavis6747 Thanks! I'm also an avid researcher and familiar with the Sasquatch. There is a famous video where a man that went on camping trips encounters and recorderd the sounds of a Big foot family. They likened it to beings from another planet.

Thank you Ahati! Much appreciated.

Thanks Devo. We will also take a look.

Thank you, Joseph. We've only seen a barred owl here once - they have a really distinctive hoot and we would love to have more of them around.

haha, be careful what you wish for!

I bet you didn't hear it coming either, carefulpilgrim? They are silent fliers. Interesting that you could call an owl - another of our commenters has told us the same thing. We might try it ourselves (or, given your experience, we might not...).

@@TexasBackyardWildlife I can confirm- I’m a central Texan bird nerd and that’s how I learned that great horned owls are VERY territorial haha. A few years ago I was working the night shift next to Bergstrom airport which, still being near the edge of town, has a lot of wildlife, especially at night. I think it was December or January and we kept hearing an owl hooting so loud it was audible inside the office. Well one night around 2am I went outside trying to spot it and it was on top of a light pole at the far end of the parking lot. I hooted back and it zoomed the 100 yard distance in a couple seconds and landed on the roof right above me, all puffed up and glaring down, and giving me some (in hindsight) “get out of my territory” angry hoots. I should have known better but I hooted back one more time and it dive bombed my head, didn’t actually touch me but certainly taught me a lesson. I love seeing the wildlife I grew up with captured so wonderfully on your channel, keep up the great work!

Thank you, Roger.

Thank you so much, Blue 24.

Thank you.

Thank you George Silver. Interesting what you say about protective gear - when Dan is up on a ladder adjusting cameras or whatever in the owl nest platforms he wears googles, a helmet, and a heavy jacket (even in TX heat) and he ropes himself in. We've only ever seen them bring back rats, mice, and birds, but we've heard that they're capable of killing much larger animals.

The female is not the most gracious of creatures. I mean, here's her mate bringing her rat after rat and yet she never even seems to say thank you. Ah well.

Hugh! What a great name. I like it. They fly across our backyard sometimes when we're sitting out and yes, they are silent.

It's about 3ft wide, and yes, Dan built it. But... No owl has ever taken us up on the offer of using one of the nests. We've built 2. No luck so far. Though I have to say that the raccoons love to climb up and look at the view.

They are beautiful, and they're big, as you can see in the video. The one you saw near your house was perching probably and, even so, you said it was a very large bird. When they spread their wings they're enormous.

Thank you, Peg.

We're in southwest Austin, very near Oak Hill. Within the city limits and close to some quite built-up areas. We totally agree with you, Deborah, that watching the wildlife is thrilling. We love it!

Our pleasure, Mike.

Мы согласны. Они великолепные птицы. Нам нравится видеть их вокруг.

The slow motion and still shots really show how big these birds are and how beautiful they are.

They are so gorgeous!!! Love!!!🦉❤🦉🌲

Our pleasure, Ann. Thank you for letting us know you enjoyed the video.

It's funny, isn't it? You can tell the hoot of an owl with his mouth full.

Yep. Almost every time.

Yes. Absolutely awesome.

Thank you, Oct123456.

Thank you, Chris. Dan loves to watch the birds in slow motion - you can see things that are utterly invisible when a video is watched at normal speed. It's fascinating.

They're feathers.

No horns!!!

Thank you, K N.

The hooting of great horned owls is a beautiful and soothing sound. We love it when they're around.

OK, now that's a very brave owl!

That's really very funny! A reminder of why I prefer to type rather than using things like Siri.

Yes. They really stick the landings, don't they? The little screech owls are even more impressive. When they land, they hit the branch at high speed and there's not even the faintest hint of a wobble. Hard to describe. We need to do a video to show it.

We do, Alana. We have 2 - each with 2 cameras watching them. But this year the GH owl only sat on a nest a couple of times, and his mate never joined him. We haven't had a lot of success with getting them to stay, sadly.

It's amazing what you can see when the video is slowed down, isn't it?

What an interesting story, Gwen. Great horned owls really are big birds. They look big when they're sitting on a branch, but once they're flying they're even bigger. They have a huge wingspan.

Yes, I can imagine that would be very upsetting indeed. I guess the owl felt the eagle was competing for territory?

Texas Backyard Wildlife Exactly! Both M and Harriet have been raising their eaglets in their giant nest in a tree in the pasture at Dick Pritchett Reality, and the great horn owls also have a nest in the same area... I watch Lady Hawk’s channel, about birds raising their young, and she edits and uploads videos of several bald eagle nests from around the country, a golden eagle nest in Romania, the California condor nest in Big Sur, (amongst the redwoods on the coast in California), and the royal albatross of New Zealand... But there was an intense period of a couple of months where the horned owl would strike poor M right on his chest and knock him off his branch while he was sleeping!

We'll have to take a look at Lady Hawk's channel. Thanks for the heads-up. The gt horned owls here are certainly also territorial. They'll strike at the raccoons and foxes - though strangely they never seem to actually hurt them, I guess the intent is just to scare them off. I feel for M. It must have been hard to see him knocked off his branch.

Texas Backyard Wildlife Of all the eagle couples, M and Harriet are my favorite! When here it is ready for meeting, she sticks her foot out and fix him. Sometimes he responds to her kicks, and sometimes she doesn’t. And he is a most awesome father. People were getting grumpy at E 15, because she stayed for longer than she should have after flushing, and people are worried that her presence would throw their breeding season off last year. But he was a good father and continue to feed her and supply her with food long after she should have left... Lady Hawk’s editing is, like yours, a labor of love! I love your channel, And I am just a recent subscriber. As for Ladyhawke, I happen to see a picture of the 14 any good of a couple of years ago who ended up dying due to rat poison in some of the food she was being fed and she bled out! The mourning over the loss that eaglet was huge! God bless you, and your critters! See you around, onward and upward bound. Hallelujah

Unbelievable numbers of rats, apparently. We were stunned. We were seeing these owls eat one each per night. I was starting to feel very sorry for the rats.

Owls don't build their own nests. They use nests created by other birds (or, in our case, nests created by Dan).

This male great horned owl had a pretty tough time. Mrs GHO wasn't the most appreciative or gracious of birds.

That's quite a story. We experienced something similar last year when a nest in a neighbor's yard blew down in a storm. There were 3 owlets. One was killed, one managed to survive somehow with the parents (as far as our neighbor could tell), and one wound up on the ground. When we tried to return the little groundling to the parents the next day they had moved on. The people at Austin Wildlife Rescue were advising us on what to do, but leaving the 3rd chick perched on its own in the tree seemed very risky. In the end, the AWR people reared it with a surrogate mama and then released it when it was grown.

Thanks for sharing

He looks pretty fearsome in the still shots, doesn't he?

They truly are.

@@TexasBackyardWildlife ❤️

Well good grief! You're right! We hadn't noticed.

@@TexasBackyardWildlife What's messed up is that the Fly By Night album has that awesome Snowy Owl image, but Snowy Owls are NOT nocturnal, which makes them unusual for an Owl. But in any case, I wore my Fly By Night shirt to the shooting range today, so I had an Owl, Rush, and Firearms going on simultaneously FTW. Three of my favorite things, along with Owl youtube vids!

Thank you, Diana!

Isn't it funny? We can immediately tell from the sound of the hoot if the owl has a rat or a bird in its mouth.

Really? Wow. What an experience. Where was it?

The great horned owls around here are definitely not that large.

Thanks Beatrice.

Grüße aus Texas! Vielen Dank für Ihren netten Kommentar. Hier ist es viel wärmer als in Berlin, aber Berlin ist eine sagenhafte Stadt.

It was a Dahua security camera. We have some details about our cameras here: texasbackyardwildlife.com/information-about-our-cameras-and-set-up/ We're happy to answer questions, too. texasbackyardwildlife@gmail.com.

Thank you so much for this information!!!