{"id":33224,"date":"2015-08-07T05:56:19","date_gmt":"2015-08-07T11:56:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=33224"},"modified":"2015-08-07T07:26:47","modified_gmt":"2015-08-07T13:26:47","slug":"great-horned-owl-showing-geographic-variation-in-color","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/07\/great-horned-owl-showing-geographic-variation-in-color\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Horned Owl Showing Geographic Variation in Color"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most of the Great Horned Owls I post were photographed in Montana. This one’s from Utah and I believe it demonstrates some interesting geographic variation in color.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"great1\/1250, f\/8, ISO 400, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon<\/strong> EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

I photographed this bird just over a week ago close to the Utah\/Idaho border near Snowville, Utah. It’s in a busy but typical setting for the species. I chose to post this pose because most of the time the owl was standing more erect which placed the hanging cluster of leaves in the foreground directly in front of its face. There was another owl just out of frame to the left but it was buried in the leaves and I barely got a glimpse of it.<\/p>\n

I was struck by the plumage colors of this owl. Most (if not all) of the GHO’s I’ve seen have significant portions of their plumage that are brown, or tawny (orange-brown to\u00a0yellowish brown) but this one lacks those colors (except for a little on the face)\u00a0and is almost entirely darker shades of gray and grayish-white.<\/p>\n

Great Horned Owls are non-migratory and as a result they have developed significant and complex geographic variation in appearance. Up to 15 supspecies are recognized in the Americas.<\/p>\n

I’m no expert on owl plumage colors and I doubt that this bird is atypical but it’s different from what I usually see and I found that interesting.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Addendum: I’m posting this second image in response to Arwen’s comment below so folks can compare the colors on the first bird to what I more typically see. This is a mated pair of Great Horned Owls in\u00a0northern Montana\u00a0with the larger female on the right. I tried to pick an image where the color of the birds wasn’t influenced by extremely warm light. To my eye the dominant overall color of the first bird is gray while the primary color of the birds below is brown to tawny.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"great<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most of the Great Horned Owls I post were photographed in Montana. This one’s from Utah and it demonstrates some interesting geographic variation in color.<\/p>\n

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