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1 April 2015 Landscape Differences around Nests of Great-Horned Owls and Red-Tailed Hawks
William Langley
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Nesting territories of great-horned owls (Bubo virginianus) and red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) frequently overlap, with the owls using nests of other raptors. Records of use over a 22-year period in one locality were used to distinguish nesting sites used exclusively by great-horned owls, exclusively by red-tailed hawks, and those used by both. To determine the occurrence of various landscape characteristics within the proximity of a nest structure, I measured the total area of various land use types, total perimeter length, and the size of patches across six different land use types i.e., agriculture, pasture, residential, tree, pond, and roadside within circular plots around nests used by breeding pairs. The landscape features surrounding nests of great-horned owls differed from those surrounding red-tailed hawk nests in total perimeter length and size of patch. These differences are consistent with the fact that great-horned owls hunt from perches primarily at night using sensory modalities different than diurnal hunting red-tailed hawks.

William Langley "Landscape Differences around Nests of Great-Horned Owls and Red-Tailed Hawks," Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science 118(1-2), 105-112, (1 April 2015). https://doi.org/10.1660/062.118.0113
Published: 1 April 2015
KEYWORDS
Bubo virginianus
Buteo jamaicensis
great-horned owls
landscape features
nesting
red-tailed hawks
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