Downy Great Horned Owlet Napping On A Limb Stock Photo

The great horned owl Bubo virginianus, also known as the tiger owl originally derived from early naturalists` description as the `winged tiger` or `tiger of the air`, or the hoot owl, is a large owl native to the Americas. It is an extremely adaptable bird with a vast range and is the most widely distributed true owl in the Americas.[3] 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. In ornithological study, the great horned owl is often compared to the Eurasian eagle-owl Bubo bubo, a closely related species, which despite the latter`s notably larger size, occupies the same ecological niche in Eurasia, and the red-tailed hawk Buteo jamaicensis, with which it often shares similar habitat, prey, and nesting habits by day, thus is something of a diurnal ecological equivalent.[4] The great horned owl is one of the earliest nesting birds in North America, often laying eggs weeks or even months before other raptorial birds.[5]