11 February 2025
Remember this great horned owl nesting in Schenley Park? According to eBirder Andy Georgeson, she’s been incubating since at least 8 January.
[Great horned owl] continuing – I have now observed this owl on the old red tail hawk nest for the last 3 weeks. … This morning the owl was mobbed by 2 Ravens and displayed a defensive posture while in the nest before the Ravens flew off.
— eBird Checklist comment from Andy Georgeson, 29 Jan 2025, 7:30am
Last Sunday, 9 February, Dana Nesiti saw movement under her breast feathers and patiently waited until her owlet appeared. Can you see its little gray beak poking out under her white collar?
Incubation for great-horned owls (Bubo virginianus) lasts 30-37 days, averaging 33 days. If this owlet hatched on Saturday 8 February, its egg was laid around 6 January. Andy Georgeson’s observation supports this timing, too.
Great horned owlets are in their nestling phase for 42 days. This one will probably walk off the nest (called “branching”) on or around 22 March.
We’re going to have 6 weeks of Superb Owlet(s)!
UPDATE at noon on 11 February: Charity Kheshgi and I visited Schenley Park this morning to see the owls, best viewed in the vicinity of the stone bench here. I was lucky to digiscope a photo of the chick.
The owlet is the white fluff closest to his mother in the center of the photo. The other white stuff is the remains of a rabbit on top of the twigs at the left.
If you can’t discern the owlet above, here’s the same photo flipped so that the chick’s sleeping face is in the normal upright position. Ignore everything in this marked up photo except the area inside the yellow circle. Notice that the owlet’s white head, dark eye (closed), and beak are peeking out to the right of the nest twigs.
