Photos: Great horned owls at Cañada Cove


By on Tue, November 24, 2009

Great Horned Owl, Canada Cove, Half Moon Bay, California. The horns are not ears or horns but tufts of feathers which may help direct sounds to their ears.
This fellow is looking backwards. These owls can rotate their head 270 degrees which compensates for the fact that their eyes do not move within their sockets.
I believe this is a female who has a problem with her right eye. This probably hurts her keen binocular vision but their sense of hearing is just as good or better then their eye site. The ears are not symetrical which aids in locating sounds in both the hortizontal and vertical planes.