Actually, they never left. You may have noticed the inordinate amount of bird droppings under a pine tree in the southwest corner of the Ellison Courtyard. The source is a pair of Great Horned Owls that grad students Brent Hecht and Kate Deutsch first spotted from their fifth floor office last year. The owls are very territorial and are permanent residents of their territories. If you look at the upper branches of the pine tree, you might catch a glimpse of them—they also had two of their offspring sitting with them earlier this year. If you look carefully around the base of the tree, you may also find owl pellets—the indigestible, regurgitated remains of their prey.
“Hoot E.” and “The Blow Fish” (Brent’s names for them) are commonly named Great Horned Owls because of the feathered tufts on their heads, and their scientific name, Bubo virginianus, refers to the fact that they were first seen in the Virginia colonies – the species name was created from the Latinized form of the name of that territory (originally named for Queen Elizabeth I, the “Virgin Queen”). The first published description was made in 1788 by Johann Gmelin. Great Horned Owls also are known as Hoot Owls, Cat Owls, or Winged Tigers, due to their vocalization and/or prowess at hunting.
There are 37 species of owls in North America, and Great Horned Owls are the largest. They range between 18 and 25 inches in length, have a wingspan of 36 to 60 inches, weigh between 2 and 4 pounds, and can take prey 3 times heavier than themselves. Their diet consists of everything from rodents, raccoons, and domestic dogs and cats to other owls, seagulls, red-tailed hawks, and great blue herons. Regurgitated pellets are very large, about 3- 4″ long and 1.5″ thick, containing skulls as large as 1.2”. By the way, you can buy an owl pellet at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum if you can’t find one in the Ellison Courtyard.
