Great Horned Owl

[lilranch2001]

I have been hearing owl calls in my woods for years, and recently decided to look up the type of owl calls.

I find that the one that I recognize the most is the great horned owl, the typical hoo hoo hoooooo hoo hoo.

When I was young I grew up on a large lake in NE Indiana, across the lake was a very large state park, and I recall being somewhat frightened by a rumor that was going around that there was a huge Great Horned Owl in the park that was attacking people.

My next door neighbor was a elderly gentleman who had mentored me in many ways, he was a retired tool make and had fostered my eventual mechanical interest.

He stated that he didnt think that owls attacked people so I just assumed the rumors were all wrong, but when I started investigating the sounds I found out that Great Horns can be aggressive.

Has enyone ever seen an owl attack a human?

 

[ruffdog]

We have them here and I've never had a problem walking at night.

 

[MossRoad]

...Has enyone ever seen an owl attack a human?

Nope. But when I was a kid, we had a border collie mix that would cower at the back door scratching to get in anytime an owl hooted. We have no idea why she was so scared of owls.

 

[dodge man]

We have them around our house. Never heard of them attacking people. We went to a local park with my kids several years ago and they had wildlife expert there talking about owls. They had an injured great horn with them. They can be aggressive and said there was a documented case where on killed a bald Eagle. I picked up a baby one once that had fallen out of its nest and put it in the limb of a tree. It was pretty good sized but I was surprised how light it was.

 

[drssg]

I don't know anyone attacked by an owl, but it apparently happens.

When owls attack – Craig Medred

ETA: It seems to me that the most likely scenario would be the owl protecting its nest or young. Even a duck can be surprisingly aggressive when protecting her ducklings.

 

[Toyboy]

I live in Northern Wisconsin where they are quite common. Never even thought about an owl attack at night. Your far more likely to get buzzed by a bat chasing mosquitos then be worried about owls.
Old wives tale maybe ???

 

[user.69169]

Surrounded by nesting GHO here, got video from camera I mounted in next tree over for 10 years.
Had GHO fly by 10 feet away, many times, no threat, just headed to nest.

GHO not aggressive bird, sit on lip of nest and talk wid me about der day and local squirrel population. Nice neighbors.

 

[Thomas]

Attack nope but have owls land real close by check out my hat mittens etc.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Attack nope but have owls land real close by check out my hat mittens etc.

Hunting buddy and I were out one night with a wounded rabbit call, trying to call up a coyote. Instead we had the biggest darned owl I have ever seen just about take our scalps off! Cleaned out our pants and went home.

 

[Thomas]

Hunting buddy and I were out one night with a wounded rabbit call, trying to call up a coyote. Instead we had the biggest darned owl I have ever seen just about take our scalps off! Cleaned out our pants and went home.

Years back had good size owl show up 3 evens setting at edge of front field so I decide to try something I tried small brown mitten to fishing pole line cast it out and sure enough owl show up,couple little wiggles of the mitten owl quickly swoop down upon mitten soon as the step back I yank the mitten never seen owl jump that high before.

 

[lilranch2001]

From my reading re the Great Horned Owl, it seems it is the most common owl in North America, with populations in every state

 

[/pine]

I have heard of owls attacking hunters that were using certain calls...I will ask a neighbor who I think told me of such an occurrence...it may have been using a call when hunting coyotes...

 

[ponytug]

We live under a colony, and hear them all the time. Before nightly hunting, they gather in a tree and hoot to each other, rather like a team huddling up and psyching themselves up for the big play. They often hunt around us as we walk around the ranch at night; I assume that we flush prey for them.

They have never been anything other than shy and cryptic.

I have only seen them once in full daylight, usually only twilight and moonlight. Weight wise, coyotes seem rather big prey for great horned owls, but I don't have any factual information.

All the best,

Peter

 

[wheelbuilder]

Way back when I used to get National Geographic (80s if i remember) they had a bit on owls, and the photographer had a separate bit because he got tagged by some owls. They balled up their claws and made low passes hitting him. He wore a hard hat after the first time.

 

[oosik]

I live way out in the sticks. Got, at least, three different owls. Great Horned, Barn & and Northern Pygmy Owl. 1987 - the wife and I were walking down the driveway. From behind - an owl ( UKN type ) swooped down and pulled the stocking cap off the wife. Nobody was hurt and it happened so fast - nobody was scared. The entire event was TOTALLY silent.

Never could figure out why an owl would do that. Needless to say - the wife SELDOM went with me on future evening walks down the driveway.

JMHO - most all my "lost" barn cats are due to owls. At night the cats may venture out beyond the influence of the yard light. Big mistake - this is the hunting area of the owl & coyote.

 

[Oldpath05]

I have Barred Owls around here, they make some of most un-Godly noise I know of........
Barred Owl Calls - YouTube

 

[Ford850]

Lots of Barred Owls here too. Ungodly screams and squawks!
We have a couple Great Horned Owls, and we hear them occasionally. Every once in awhile a Screech Owl entertains us. They have all been shy around us.

 

[s219]

I live way out in the sticks. Got, at least, three different owls. Great Horned, Barn & and Northern Pygmy Owl. 1987 - the wife and I were walking down the driveway. From behind - an owl ( UKN type ) swooped down and pulled the stocking cap off the wife. Nobody was hurt and it happened so fast - nobody was scared. The entire event was TOTALLY silent.

A few years back I heard a lecture from a prominent British Aerodynamics/Acoustics expert named Geoffrey Lilley, who had done a lot of studies on owls and their lack of noise. It was fascinating.

Owls have very fluffy downy feathers under their wings that help absorb noise, and their feathers are setup to make only very low frequency noise, lower than their prey (and humans) can even hear. And the owls own ears block out their wing noise too. Their hearing range is the same as their prey. So when they swoop in on prey, it's a silent operation -- the owl can hear the prey but the prey can't hear anything and the owl doesn't even hear it's own noise.

The other interesting thing he said is that owls are capable of very steep flight paths, like as steep as 45 degrees. They can fly down towards prey at angles no fixed wing airplane could come close to doing, which is part of their amazing capability.

The end result is that owls hit their targets very fast and silent, as if out of nowhere. It's pretty amazing.

Lilley was an interesting guy too, who lived quite a life:

Obituaries: Professor Geoffrey Lilley, OBE | The Scotsman

 

[lilranch2001]

As I have been studying youtube owl sounds, I guess I realize there are many more owl sounds that I attributed to other birds than I had ever realized before

 

[lman]

When I was a kid, we trapped one in the chicken house. My dad grabbed it and it clamped it's talons around my dad's arms. My brother helped get it off of him and it was released about 10 miles away. It had killed about 10 chickens before we caught it. We have a lot of Barred Owls around here.