April Raptor – Great-gray Owl

Great-gray Owl. Photograph by Neil Paprocki.

I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited to see a life-bird than I was last week after seeing my first Great-gray Owl.

Standing a whopping 3-feet in height, the tallest owl in North America inhabits the northern boreal forests and western mountains. Feeding on mainly small mammals, Great-grays are perhaps most famous for a hunting technique termed “snow plunging.”

While the ground of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest of eastern Oregon was clear of snow, I still had the privilege of watching this Great-gray Owl make several hunting attempts; each time plunging into the grassy meadows of a mature Ponderosa Pine forest.

While I never observed the owl successfully capture it’s prey, it was amazing to watch the bird repeatedly plunge to the ground, seemingly unaware of my existence.