Here is a single frame from some video I took of a Great Gray Owl trying to melt into his background but still keeping an eye on the intruder…In this case a fly-over Common Raven. Looks very different than the “fat and fluffy” appearance of a relaxed or hunting Great Gray.

In this video I show footage from two different incidents in which a Great Gray Owl detects an “enemy”…in one case a Bald Eagle, and in the other a Common Raven. Note how the owl stretches itself vertically to become “skinny,” (concealment posture or erect alarm posture) and then backs up to be next to the trunk (presumably to blend in) and then presents its narrowest profile towards the raven or eagle.

So the question is, Why would a Great Gray not want to be detected by a raven or an eagle? The well-known Canadian Great Gray Owl researcher, Robert Nero, wrote a neat book about a captive Great Gray called Lady Grayl: Owl with a Mission. In it he says that he’s only witnessed it once in the wild and that was when an immature Bald Eagle flew a hundred meters over a perched Great Gray. He goes on to say that even though Bald Eagles rarely bother Great Grays, this bird was probably not responding to the species of raptor, but rather the raptor image…”Better to be safe than sorry!”

Filmed in the Sax-Zim Bog of northern Minnesota. Ironically, the eagle incident was filmed on March 3, 2011, exactly one year before the raven footage.

Canon 7D with Canon 400mm f5.6 lens, tripod