Great Horned Owl

Adult: A very powerful bulky owl with a broad body. Female larger than the males and generally darker. Large head, stout ear tuffs, and yellow eyes. Broad facial disk rimmed with black, whitish superciliary eyebrows. White foreneck often conspicuous and ruff like, especially when vocalizing. Upper chest coarsely mottled; rest of the underparts crossbarred. Gray bill; densely feathered legs and toes.

Young: Downy plumage grayish to buff, with dusky barring. By about october young birds acquire a complete set of flight feathers and tail : feathers that differ in pattern, shape , and wear from those of the adult: they have broader and more numerous crossbars, wings with uniformly fresh-looking rather than variably worn flight flight feathers and tail feather tapered rather than blunt ended.