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Excerpts Adapted from the Birds of Saskatchewan:

The Great Horned Owl-large, powerful, and long-lived-is adapted by its anatomy, physiology, and behaviour to survive in any North American climate except arctic-alpine. Equally at home in desert, grassland, suburban and forest habitat, north to the tree line, it has a diverse prey base and the most extensive range with the most variation in nesting sites of any American owl. Permanent resident throughout North America to northern and central South America (Artuso et al. 2013).

Uses a wide variety of habitats: deciduous, mixed, or conifer forests, but prefers open and secondary growth temperate woodlands, swamps, orchards and agricultural areas. Home range usually includes some open habitat of fields, wetlands, pastures, or croplands (Artuso et al. 2013).

This is the only Saskatchewan owl species that is a permanent resident throughout the entire province. Most numerous in parklands, it is also common in the southern boreal region and fairly common in the northern boreal, subarctic, and grasslands (Smith 1996).

Original text by C. Stuart Houston. Text adapted by Daniel J. Sawatzky

Read more about the Great Horned Owl in the Birds of Saskatchewan here.

LeeAnn M. Latremouille

Recommended citation: Latremouille, L. M. 2025. Great Horned 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=GHOW&lang=en [14 Nov 2025]