The Great Horned Owl is the boss of Michigan's night woods — a bulky, ear-tufted predator with a grip measured in hundreds of pounds per square inch and yellow eyes that miss nothing. Its deep, five-note hoot ("Who's awake? Me too") carries through winter nights, because this owl nests earlier than any Michigan bird — females may be incubating eggs in an old hawk nest by late January, snow piling on their backs.
Great Horneds take prey up to the size of skunks (whose spray they shrug off, lacking much sense of smell) and rabbits, and they're the chief natural enemy of crows — which is why a mob of furious crows in a pine is often pointing at a hidden owl.
The broadest diet of any North American owl: rabbits, mice, squirrels, skunks, birds up to duck and hawk size, even the occasional fish. Hunting is a silent glide on sound-dampening feathers, ending in those crushing feet.
Late fall through winter — courtship duets peak December–February, the male's deeper hoot alternating with the female's. Calm, cold nights an hour after sunset are prime.
Very likely a roosting Great Horned Owl. Owls raid crow roosts at night, so crows harass any owl they find by day. Follow a crow mob quietly and you may get a look.
No — they're feather tufts used for camouflage and expression. The actual ears are hidden slits at the facial disk edge, offset from each other to triangulate sound in the dark.
Yes — Great Horned Owls are present in Michigan in every month of the year. Numbers stay fairly steady from month to month. Birds are easier to detect in the breeding season, when they are singing and displaying, so a quiet winter month can feel emptier than the population actually is.
Owlets. They hatch as early as February in Michigan, leave the nest on foot at about five weeks — a stage called branching — and are fed by the parents for months afterward. Owlets are white and downy with a dark facial disc and only stubby ear tufts.
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