American barn owl in flight, California (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

3 September 2025

What happens when two owl species meet in the dark? If one of them is a great horned owl the other owl is frightened away. Great horned owls (Bubo virginianus) will eat anything including other owls.

Great horned owl eating a snake in Arizona (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

Last year an Oswit Land Trust trail cam in Southern California picked up an unusual encounter. An American barn owl (Tyto furcata) was cooling its feet and drinking water when suddenly a bigger owl flew in. The great horned owl landed at the barn owl’s spot while the barn owl vaulted into the air and landed at a distance.

Great horned owls weigh more than 2.5 times that of barn owls. Naturally the barn owl was wary but he must have been very thirsty. Eventually he re-approached the watering hole.

Note that when the video began at 7:49p the temperature was 100°F but dropped to 98°F 23 minutes later at the end. It was hot and they were both so thirsty!

p.s. Did you know that barn owls were split into three species?

that Barn owls used to be one species, but DNA evidence revealed they are very different across their disjoint range. So they were split into three species last year.

Barn owl range map for three speices ()