The silent flight of the great horned owl is powerful, swift, skillful, and graceful.
When leaving a perch, the great horned owl flaps its great wings heavily and rapidly, with its feet dangling. The feet are soon drawn up into the plumage and the wings spread, as it glides swiftly away for a long period of sailing on fixed wings.
It threads its way with perfect precision through the branches of the forest trees, or glides at low levels over the open meadows, where it can drop swiftly and silently on its unsuspecting prey.
• Image | ©️ Flood G., Some Rights Reserved, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
• Sources | (Bent, 1937; Forbush, 1929)
