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Great Horned Owl : Great Horned Owl Iggiayuli Not long ago I was watching a male Great horned owl hoot. Yes, hoot. It was at dusk in the evening, and each time he called his deep, resonant five-noted hoot, hoo, hoodoo hoooo hoo, he leaned forward, vibrated his throat feathers and lifted his short tail. I had never noticed these movements before and was struck by how they characterized this particular species of owl. No other owl called in exactly this way. All birds, of course, have their own unique traits. But the Great horned owl is in a family that is particularly interesting because most can hunt at night. This is probably the reason why Yupiks call this bird Iggiayuli, which translates loosely as "the one who is good at eyeballing." In fact, the horned owl can see at night many times better than we humans can. It's almost as though it has infrared vision. Not only does the owl see well, it has extremely sensitive hearing which is enhanced by its facial ruff. This concave surface of stiff dark-tipped feathers functions as a reflector, channeling sounds into the ears. Once a sound is detected, the owl can accurately pinpoint its location. The biology of both its ear openings and its brain help them do this. The unique structure of its wings takes over from there. The forward edge of the first primary feather on each wing is toothed rather than smooth, which disrupts the flow of air over the wings in flight and eliminates all noise. This makes horned owls formidable silent hunters at night. The list of prey species that this large owl feeds on is enormous, including everything from tiny shrews to Canada geese and swans. In Alaska, however, most of its diet consists of snowshoe hares. Since hare populations are cyclic, the owls are most numerous when the population of the snowshoe is high. When the rabbit's numbers crash, the owls disperse and/or eat more birds. An interesting characteristic of our Alaskan horned owls, which are often around for part of the winter, is that after they kill an animal on a freezing cold day they may cache some of what they don't eat. When they return to the frozen carcass they defrost the frozen cache by "incubating" it, something ornithologists call "prey thawing." In a reverse manner, the idea of "incubation" (of eggs, not prey) leads us to courting and mating. I remember a few years ago listening to a pair of horned owls call back and forth in the woods across the river from Marshall where I taught school. It was March, and since I couldn't see the birds I didn't know what other sort of behavior Iwas listening to at the time. I do now. Even though it seemed too early for it, those two owls were courting. The male was performing his noisy hooting aerial display, and ritually feeding the female who thanked him with a low, nasal, barking guwaay. They touched bills, bobbed heads, hooted and clicked and hooted and clicked, and repeated the ritual all over again. Pretty interesting stuff, eh? There's more. Horned owls don't get serious about nesting until they are two years old. When they finally decide to tie the knot, so to speak, the female (who else?) usually lays 2-3 white eggs. Both sexes incubate the eggs for 26-35 days, and after the eggs hatch both parents also feed the young birds. Since the young quickly become too big for the nest, they jump to the ground where they continue to be fed by their parents. At this stage they look like light brown fuzz balls. Once in the Yukon Territory in Canada I found one on a river bank and was able to get so close I could gently touch its soft jacket of downy feathers. Between 63-70 days after hatching, these fuzz balls eventually do spread their by now huge wings and begin to fly. The Great horned owl, which is so-named because it has two feathers atop its head that look like horns, also has some other interesting names. It is called, hoot owl, big hoot owl, cat owl, chicken owl, eagle owl, king owl and Virginia horned owl. The last refers to its scientific name, Bubo virginianus, which translates literally as, "owl from Virginia," where it was first collected and described by scientists. One final caveat for those who like to try imitating bird calls. I was once informed by Bill Manumik, a friend from Marshall, that if you annoy a Great horned owl by hooting at him, be aware that he will fly down next to you and start telling you your life story, including all of the things you've done wrong. He may even tell you something unpleasant about your future. Now, if you don't want to hear those things, you know what not to do. » List of Yupik Birds

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