Owl Central: Great Horned Owls

Great Horned Owls
Great Horned Owls live in a lot of places in the Americas! They live as north as Canada, and as down south as Central America. They don't technically live in Eurasia, but they have a close cousin: the eagle owl! It can be very hard to tell the two species apart.
That's not the only part that can be hard to tell apart about Great Horned Owls. You can't always tell a gender apart just by looking. The two genders look very similar, so it takes close examination to tell the two apart. Generally, though, the males are smaller.
Great Horned Owls have a complex language. They can make a ton of noises, including a super-loud screech that sounds unnatural. Their calls can differ between genders: males usually make more complex calls. However, some females do sometimes make complex calls like the males.
Great Horned Owls chicks have natural parents, of course. But if one is taken in by a human when it's very young, it can start viewing the human as a parent! It'll stick around for a long time, even after it's an adult! But it leaves when it finds a mate.
Great Horned Owls can grow fond of humans, apparently. If one is rescued and taken care of by a human when it's injured, it can grow to trust the human. Then, when he's released, they may seem to fly away... but he sticks around! Sometimes you don't know this for a long time.
Chicks have an unusual eating style. One chick may gouge itself on food, and keep its siblings from eating. But the next time food comes around, the chick is too full to eat, and the chick that didn't eat rushes forward for lunch, filling up its tummy. This feeding style usually evens things out in the nest.
However, it's hard to duplicate when one is taking care of a rescued chick. You've got to keep from overfeeding, since it could kill itself doing that. So you have to be careful... and things get more difficult when the chick becomes of age when both parents would feed it. Why? Because the chick would usually get meals every 15-20 minutes. For a single human to do this... yikes!!!
Great Horned Owls are predators, like most owls. They eat small mammals like mice and voles. But get this... they also eat other birds! When in captivity, they'll also go for chicken legs. But they're smart owls... if they're too injured, they'll eat even ground hamburger just because it's easier to eat! Now that's cool!