{"id":7658,"date":"2013-02-28T05:19:54","date_gmt":"2013-02-28T12:19:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=7658"},"modified":"2025-05-08T10:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T15:42:12","slug":"a-pair-of-great-horned-owls-in-montana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/02\/28\/a-pair-of-great-horned-owls-in-montana\/","title":{"rendered":"Pair of Great Horned Owls in Montana"},"content":{"rendered":"

This mated pair of Great Horned Owls were resting in the opening of an old granary in Glacier County<\/span><\/a>, Montana when I photographed them in June of 2009.<\/p>\n

\"GreatGreat Horned Owls in a granary – Nikon D200, tripod mounted, f6.3, 1\/400, ISO 400, Nikkor 200-400mm VR with 1.4x TC at 400mm, natural light, not baited or called in<\/span><\/p>\n

The smaller male is on the left and the larger female is on the right. Their fledglings were most likely inside the granary.<\/p>\n

Though I normally prefer birds in natural settings there is some thing about owls and old, weathered wood that I find visually appealing despite the “hand of humans” in this frame. Of course, the beautiful light helped out too!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Great Horned Owl photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This mated pair of Great Horned Owls were resting in the opening of an old granary in Glacier County, Montana when I photographed them in June of 2009.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,860,209,12],"tags":[4004,4051,1782,2663,4203,4205,4049,4108,1093,2138,4206,3967,294,2415,2139,165],"class_list":["post-7658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-glacier-county","category-great-horned-owls","category-montana","tag-adult","tag-adults","tag-barn","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-bubo-virginianus","tag-glacier-county","tag-granary","tag-great-horned-owl","tag-hand-of-man","tag-mates","tag-old-wood","tag-owl","tag-owls","tag-owls-of-montana","tag-pair","tag-spring"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owl-pair-mia-mcpherson-1912.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1Zw","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11157,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/11\/25\/missing-montanas-great-horned-owls\/","url_meta":{"origin":7658,"position":0},"title":"Missing Montana’s Great Horned Owls","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 25, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Great Horned Owls and old wood just seem to go together, the warm tones of the wood are a great compliment to the same tones in the plumage of Great Horned Owls.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mated pair of Great Horned Owls perched on an old granary in Montana, Glacier County\u00a0","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owls-mates-mia-mcpherson-1970.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owls-mates-mia-mcpherson-1970.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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McPherson","date":"April 9, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This female Great Horned Owl was resting at the opening of an old granary in Glacier County, Montana when I photographed her.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Female Great Horned Owl in Montana, Glacier County, Montana\u00a0","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owl-female-mia-mcpherson-2781.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owl-female-mia-mcpherson-2781.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owl-female-mia-mcpherson-2781.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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It might be that owls have forward facing eyes like this Great Horned Owlet. Those eyes truly draw a person in.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Horned Owlet resting in Glacier County, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-2010.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-2010.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-2010.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owl-chick-mia-mcpherson-2010.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7370,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/02\/02\/great-horned-owl-fledgling-in-a-montana-granary-window\/","url_meta":{"origin":7658,"position":4},"title":"Great Horned Owl fledgling in a Montana granary window","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Currently throughout the breeding range of Great Horned Owls the owls have either begun to nest or have nested already. Great Horned Owls have a large range and are found in the U.S., Canada and Central America.","rel":"","context":"In "Glacier County"","block_context":{"text":"Glacier County","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/montana\/glacier-county\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Great Horned Owl fledgling in Glacier County, Montana","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owl-fledgling-montana-mia-mcpherson-6831.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owl-fledgling-montana-mia-mcpherson-6831.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owl-fledgling-montana-mia-mcpherson-6831.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/great-horned-owl-fledgling-montana-mia-mcpherson-6831.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8692,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/06\/24\/great-horned-owlet-in-a-granary-window\/","url_meta":{"origin":7658,"position":5},"title":"Great Horned Owlet in a granary window","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 24, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm extremely fond of owls, it might be their forward facing eyes that draws me to them. 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