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The Great Gray Owl is significantly larger, standing at around 28 inches tall with a wingspan around 60 inches. The Great Horned Owl is smaller in comparison, averaging 22 inches tall with a wingspan around 50 inches. The plumage of these two owls is also quite distinct.
Great Gray Owls have a larger, grayer head and facial disc than Great Horned Owls and they do not have ear tufts. © Ian Davies / Macaulay Library Quebec
Pairs often call together, with audible differences in pitch. Great Horned Owls are covered in extremely soft feathers that insulate them against the cold winter weather and help them fly very quietly in pursuit of prey. Their short, wide wings allow them to maneuver among the trees of the forest.
Regional Differences. Great Horned Owls vary in color tone across their range: birds from the Pacific Northwest tend to be dark sooty; individuals across the Southwest are paler and grayer; and birds from subarctic Canada can be almost white.
The great grey owl (Strix nebulosa) (also great gray owl in American English) is a true owl, and is the world's largest species of owl by length. It is distributed across the Northern Hemisphere, and it is the only species in the genus Strix found in both Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
At a Glance. Found almost throughout North America and much of South America is this big owl. Aggressive and powerful in its hunting (sometimes known by nicknames such as 'tiger owl'), it takes prey as varied as rabbits, hawks, snakes, and even skunks, and will even attack porcupines, often with fatal results for both prey and predator.
The Great Gray Owl is a truly boreal species, found across the Northern Hemisphere from Scandinavia to northern Asia to northern North America. It lives in coniferous forests from central Alaska across Canada, down the Northern Rockies, and into extreme northern Minnesota.
The great horned owl is the heaviest owl of South America, and the second-heaviest in North America, after the closely-related snowy owl. The species is found throughout much of North and South America, and can live in a wide range of habitats, including deserts and forests.
Like the Barn Owl and Short-eared Owl, the Great Horned Owl has a wide distribution, found from the northern boreal forests of Alaska and Canada south through the mountains and deserts of Patagonia — an impressively large portion of the Americas.
While they appear large, the Great Grays body mass is generally 25 -50% less than that of the Great Horned Owl. Great Horned Owls can weigh up to 4-pounds, while a Great Gray averages only two-to-three pounds.