Great Horned Owl

Description:

With its long, earlike tufts, intimidating yellow-eyed stare, and deep hooting voice, the Great Horned Owl is the quintessential owl of storybooks. This powerful predator can take down birds and mammals even larger than itself, but it also dines on daintier fare such as tiny scorpions, mice, and frogs. It’s one of the most common owls in North America, equally at home in deserts, wetlands, forests, grasslands, backyards, cities, and almost any other semi-open habitat between the Arctic and the tropics. (Cornell)

Notes:

A bunch of Blue Jays were making a lot of noise up by the top of a pine tree and my wife noticed the owl was what they were scolding. This was a nice daytime sighting and a good addition to the Christmas Bird Count we participated in today.