Great Horned Owl (also known as Tiger Owl or Hoot Owl)

Large, powerful owl with prominent ear tufts and a white throat patch. The feather reflects their cryptic camouflage, designed to mimic bark and shadows while enabling silent flight.

Mottled pattern with dark brown or charcoal-colored transverse wavy bands on a base of creamy white to pale buff. Includes subtle tawny or cinnamon washes toward the tips.

Highly specialized; features a dense, plumulaceous (fluffy) base for insulation and a pennaceous tip with velvet-like pile (frizz) to dampen sound during flight.

Incredibly soft, velvety, and silky to the touch. The surface has a matte appearance due to fine hair-like barbules that reduce air turbulence and friction.

Distinguished by the soft 'velvet' texture typical of Strigiformes and the specific jagged dark-on-buff banding pattern unique to Bubo virginianus.

Extremely versatile; found in deciduous and evergreen forests, swamps, desert canyons, agricultural areas, and even suburban parks.

Year-round resident across most of North America, stretching from the subarctic Alaskan forests down through Central America to parts of South America.

Apex predator that controls rodent, lagomorph, and even other raptor populations; occupies abandoned nests of hawks, crows, or herons.

Long-eared Owl feathers are smaller with more longitudinal streaking; Barred Owl feathers have cleaner, more defined horizontal barbs without the heavy mottling.

Great Horned Owls can apply up to 300 pounds per square inch of pressure with their talons and are one of the few predators that regularly hunt skunks.

Good to Fair condition. The feather shows some minor separation of the barbs (fraying) and slight wear at the edges, likely a naturally molted specimen.