 Breeding evidence |
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Click on plot to view table of mean abundance
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Number of squares
Long-term BBS trends
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Mean abundance (number of birds detected per 5 min. point count) and percentage of squares occupied by region Bird Conservation Regions [abund. plot]
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Atlas Results
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Excerpts Adapted from the Birds of Saskatchewan:
"Phantom of the Northern Forest? is the fitting description given by Robert W. Nero in his book The Great Gray Owl (1980). The remote and variable nature of its distribution and its preference for dense forest and tamarack bogs make this Holarctic owl a difficult species to study. In North America it ranges from northern Alaska to northern Ontario and northern Minnesota south in the Sierra Nevada to central California and Nevada, and in the Rockies to northwestern Wyoming.
In Saskatchewan this owl's year-round habitat includes muskegs and upland coniferous, mixedwood, and deciduous forests (Smith 1996). It hunts in or near bogs, forest edges, or other forest openings (Duncan 2003), wherever trees or snags provide an elevated perch. It avoids drier pine stands, dense stands of black spruce on dry ground, open areas without trees, and habitats with dense shrub layers (Bull and Duncan 1993). Most breeding records from Saskatchewan are from mixedwood forest.
In Saskatchewan the Great Gray Owl is an uncommon permanent resident of the southern boreal region and rare on the southern fringes of the northern boreal (Smith 1996). Breeding distribution is limited by prey availability (voles are generally on a 4-year cycle) and by Raven, Goshawk, and Red-tailed Hawk nest-site availability (Houston and Wylie 1984, Duncan 2003). These owls are encountered most frequently during the winter months when individuals wander in search of prey.
Original text by Harold E. Fisher. Text adapted by Daniel J. Sawatzky
Read more about the Great Gray Owl in the Birds of Saskatchewan here.
Recommended citation: Latremouille, L. M. 2025. Great Gray Owl in Latremouille, L. M., S. L. Van Wilgenburg, C. B. Jardine, D. Lepage, A. R. Couturier, D. Evans, D. Iles, and K. L. Drake (eds.). 2025. The Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Saskatchewan, 2017-2021. Birds Canada. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan https://sk.birdatlas.ca/accounts/speciesaccount.jsp?sp=GGOW&lang=en [09 Nov 2025]
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