We’ve seen some amorous owls in our time*, but this pair takes the prize (and there really should be a prize). I wanted to call this video “Great horny owls” but Dan wouldn’t let me.
This is a pair of great horned owls making out on one of our owl nest platforms in February 2025. They canoodled and cooed and purred, but they didn’t nest there, much to our sorrow.
The female owl, the larger of the two, was very assertive about her affections and intentions; the male was receptive but sensibly cautious. Female great horned owls can be pretty fearsome – they sound a bit girly, with their higher-pitched hoots, but there’s nothing girly about those talons when they’re sweetly caressing your throat.
We have about 3 minutes of “teenagers in the backseat of a car” behavior, and then Dan added the 3 minutes that actually preceded it, which shows the male calling in his mate prior to her arrival. We put it second because we figured that people would be most interested in seeing the pair together. In this 2nd segment, the male is on his own, hooting, and the female is off-camera hooting back. It’s a lovely duet, and we think it’s pretty cool stuff.
* I’ve added links to a couple more amorous owl videos right at the end of the this one.
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A note about video playback quality:
We publish our videos with the highest resolution YouTube allows and so they should look crisp and clear when you play them. If they don’t, check your settings and make sure you’ve selected high definition (HD). We recommend 1440p. To find the settings, move your cursor over the bottom of the video and the controls etc will appear. Settings is a little gear wheel. Click on the icon and select Quality, which isthe bottom link. You’ll be able to adjust your playback video resolution there.
A note about AI:
People have asked us if we use AI to generate or enhance our videos or narrations. We don’t. We never will. We’re probably not techie enough to be able to figure how to create AI videos, but even if we were, we would never publish them on our channel. Our backyard critters are interesting and smart and we don’t need to fake anything.