[obol] Great Horned Owl Diets

From: Hannah Fritz <hannah.fritz@xxxxxxxxx>
To: OBOL <obol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 22:32:34 -0700
If you're sensitive to photos or discussions of dead birds/animals, read no
further. I, myself, tend to be, but it is what it is.

I am just looking for understand of the situation I came across this
morning.

Hiking ('wandering lost') in Sisters area today, I came across this young
Great Horned Owl sitting on a log right near the path. Inevitably, it would
have to fly off as I walked past. When it did, it tried to carry off what I
realized was its meal that it had been standing on, but the meal was too
heavy and/or it snagged on a branch. With mixed feelings, I looked closer
to see what it was. It appeared to be another Great Horned Owl.

At first I was unsure if the young owl was actually eating the other owl.
Maybe the dead owl was a parent (I did not see any adult GHOs around, I'm
guessing this owl is old enough to be on its own now),and the young owl was
just... sitting near it. But when I came back down the trail a few minutes
later I took some more photos, and you can clearly see red on the beak, so
it HAD been eating it.

I wonder, and probably can only speculate, if the young owl attacked and
killed this other owl to eat it. Or if the other owl died of some other
cause, and the young owl decided to just take advantage of a free meal. I
have read some of parent owls eating sick baby owls, and things of that
nature with very young birds in the nest. What is documented about this
type of cannibalistic situation of older birds?

I'm not sure if the dead owl is a young owl of a similar age (sibling), or
older. Would a young owl be able to attack and kill a mature bird? I wish I
had looked around more closely for a nest, although I guess both birds are
too old to have fallen out of a nest and died.

Anyhow, here are the pics:

How I first saw it:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/eggwhite/birds/ghowlet1_zpsea584348.png

Red beak:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/eggwhite/birds/ghowlet3_zps1a376227.png

Immature or mature?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/eggwhite/birds/ghowlet2_zps82e689a0.png

Flushed to tree:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/eggwhite/birds/ghowlet4_zpsced8167c.png

On a less morbid note, saw my first Northern Pygmy-Owls! A pair of them
(both alive and not being eaten)!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v65/eggwhite/birds/nopo3_zps7f94ffdc.png
:)

Hannah Fritz
St. Helens, OR
[obol] Great Horned Owl Diets

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