About the Great Horned Owl Drawing
Great Horned Owls have always impressed me as exceptionally powerful and self-possessed birds. Seeing one perched silently above the landscape is always a treat, particularly when its enormous eyes and prominent feather tufts give the impression that it is watching everything around it.
For years, we had a Chihuahua that weighed only about five pounds. Whenever I let him into the backyard after dark, I wondered whether a Great Horned Owl might carry him away. I used to say that I certainly did not want that to happen, but….. if it was going to happen, I did not want to miss seeing it. Fortunately, both the dog and my curiosity survived intact.
Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus) are among the most widespread and adaptable raptors in the Americas. They inhabit forests, wetlands, deserts, grasslands, agricultural areas, suburbs, and cities. Their diet is equally broad and can include rodents, rabbits, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and even other raptors. Their extraordinarily powerful feet and talons allow them to capture prey larger than themselves, while soft-edged flight feathers help them approach through the darkness with very little sound.
In Night Watch, I portrayed the owl facing directly outward from a diagonal branch. The intense gaze, upright posture, prominent ear-like tufts, barred plumage, and heavy talons convey the quiet authority of a predator that is perfectly adapted to hunting at night. The title reflects the owl’s alert posture and its role as an unseen observer of the nocturnal landscape.
Night Watch is a graphite wildlife drawing of a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) by Michael E. Dorcas for Tantilla Art.