Bird Sounds: Great Horned Owl

By Michaels on June 16

We live on the edge of Austin and Pflugerville, TX with a green belt behind our home and horse ranches all around. We love listening to the Great Horned Owls. Occasionally we see one, but usually it's too dark.

By Margaret Nissen on May 22

I live in Irmo, SC and enjoy sitting on the porch early morning listening to the birds as they awaken and begin their day.
This morning at 5:40 I heard the great horned owl in the woods behind our house, very close. Beautiful sound!

By RVL

From Kingston,Ontario,Canada. We have owls in the area, but they are in trouble this year because of our roller coaster weather. The freezing then mild weather we have been getting has not been good for the owls food supply. (mice) Many mice have died and the birds cannot get a meal because of this.

By Mariallan

Heard a hooting call just after dusk in midtown Atlanta coming from a stand of tall trees behind my son's house. After listening a couple of times for the direction it was coming from we finally saw it in silouette facing away from us on a high branch. He would lean out and down then nod his head up and down vigerously as it called. Very surprising to me to see one in such a busy urban area. There are a lot of trees and squirrels around though.

By Rhonda-Harris

We have a great horned that lives on our property we have routinely seen and heard since we moved here 9 months ago. We live in Bunker Hill IL. There are lots of rabbits and rodents around to keep him fed . But we have a small dog to worry about.

By Brad S

We heard a single owl near our house in Rhode Island tonight for the first time. Confirmed our ID by your website. THANKS!

By UCD Alum

We heard this owl call last night while picnicking in the UC Davis Arboretum redwood grove. It was about 8pm when they started -- dusk. At about 8:50pm we got up to crane our necks to look up and find him or her, when they went silent. We were privileged to witness Fly Out of not one but TWO great horned owls a few minutes later, at 9pm. Beautiful.

By prfek

We have this guy or girl and a young one that visits our trees in Summerville, SC almost every night. We had him in sight one time on the ground in daylight in our back yard. Big and beautiful. It is recent that the young one is with this owl and makes those noises like a cat being attacked. We look forward to the calls every night. What is interesting is we live in a subdivision, right in town, not in the country.

By Team Thunder

We heard this guy last night in one of our oak trees. We live about 30 miles SW of Chicago, IL in the suburbs. I've lived here 40 years, and it's the first time I've ever heard one 'in the wild' around here.

By Anjeanette

I live in Raleigh, NC and I have a pair of Great Horned owls and a pair of Barred owls that call to each other in my back yard. I was surprised to hear both pairs at the same time. I thought maybe their territories didn't overlap but I guess they do. The sounds are so beautiful!

By K Williamson

We live in Southern Alberta, Canada (North of Nanton, AB to be exact) on a 10 Acre farm. Over the last 8 weeks we have had the pleasure of watching not one, but two Great Horned Owls live, hunt and sing on our property. It seems they sleep in the rafters of our horse barn during the day, and hunt from our tree's during the night. They alternate calls all night from the time the sun sets around 6pm until around 7:30am in the morning. Today, we finally witnessed a kill, and watched the owl bring the feed to a nest we thought was abandoned. It appeared as though the owl was feeding some young, but we cant say for sure. Amazing creatures!! If there are babies, I cant wait to watch them grow.

By JAMES09

I used to feed these birds all the time when I lived back in Indiana...

I would attach live mice to a platform(feeder mice) & then after a few minutes, the Owls would come & feast on the mice.

By debbi525

I live in Texas,at least twice a week we get this visitor in one of my trees or at either one of my neighbors.Sometimes it will perch on my neighbors garage roof.It is huge! So big that out of the corner of our eyes we can spot him.He gets very vocal and there have been times when I refuse to allow my small dog outside at dusk because of him! He is beautiful.

By Kyle

One night while I was on my computer, I saw a shape on top of my grandma's house and it was the exact shape of a Great Horned Owl!

By Larry Lima

I heard one recently in Tangipahao Parish, LA. It was lower sounding than the one in the recording. I had to look it up because we usually hear the Barred Owl. We have a small stream that runs through the property and he was in one of the large Oaks that are along it.

By Jim Klein

I hear the great horned owl quite often. I live on Lake Murray in South Carolina. My house is on a cove of the lake.There is an abundance of pine trees in the cove.