Bird
Great Horned Owl
Bubo virginianus
Lives in North Carolina all year and nests here. Found in all 100 counties, across 35 habitats.
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 100 counties
- Habitats
- 35

At a glance
- Group
- Birds
- Here
- All year
- Nesting
- Nests here
- Range
- All 100 counties
- Habitats
- 35
- Habitat models
- Year-round
Where it lives
The places its habitat model includes. It is not found everywhere a habitat occurs.
Habitats in North Carolina 35
Each habitat page lists the plants and wildlife also found there.
Cliffs, ledges and rocky summits

Floodplain and bottomland forests



Granite and other acidic rock outcrops



Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground


Streams, rivers and their banks


Open sand of beaches, dunes and the hollows between them.
Coastal tidal marshes (salinity not stated)
Tidal marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the source does not say whether the water is fresh, brackish or salt. A stated salinity files the marsh under freshwater tidal marshes or salt and brackish marshes instead.
Depression ponds and limesinks
Shallow ponds in Coastal Plain depressions, such as limesinks and the ponds in some Carolina bays, that rise and fall with the seasons.
Disturbed and introduced wetlands
Wet ground taken over by weedy or introduced plants after disturbance, such as common reed, Chinese tallow or tamarisk stands; the upland counterpart is roadsides, fields and disturbed ground.
Forests and open woodlands on dry ridges and slopes, often oak or pine.
Borders of forests, clearings and shrubby thickets.
Marshes along tidal rivers where the water is fresh but rises and falls with the tide.
Glades, barrens and outcrops on limestone
Open, thin-soil openings and rock on limestone, dolomite or other lime-rich rock, including cedar glades.
Flat, poorly drained uplands and terraces with oaks, sweetgum and sometimes loblolly pine, wet in winter and dry in summer, but neither a floodplain nor a swamp.
Salt-pruned forests and shrub thickets behind coastal dunes.
Forests on moist but not wet ground, such as rich slopes and ravines.
Treeless grassy or shrubby summits and ridges in the high mountains.
Wet, open, peaty mountain wetlands fed by seepage, often with sphagnum moss.
Open, fire-kept longleaf pine stands over grasses and wildflowers on wet to moist sandy soil.
Dense evergreen shrub wetlands and bay forests on wet, acid peat of the Coastal Plain.
Coastal marshes flooded by salty or brackish tides.
Dry, deep-sand ridges with longleaf pine and turkey oak, kept open by fire.
Places where groundwater keeps the soil or rock wet, such as seepage slopes and spring runs.
Salt and brackish open water of sounds, bays and estuaries, with the mud and sand flats and seagrass beds that tides cover and uncover; the vegetated marsh is salt and brackish marshes.
Tree plantations and managed pine
Planted or intensively managed stands of pine or hardwoods grown for timber; a land use rather than a natural community.
Open, wet, grassy or sedgy ground that is not a bog.

Forests between dry and moist, often oak-hickory on slopes.
High mountain forests of beech, yellow birch and sugar maple, including boulderfield forests.
Other habitats in its models (205)
Land cover, or classes with no habitat page in North Carolina. Those recorded in North Carolina first, the rest by region.
In North Carolina 2
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland Year-round.
- Southern Piedmont Glade and Barrens Year-round.
Elsewhere in the South (114)
- Appalachian Shale Barrens Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Indian River Lagoon Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Sea Island Beach Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Beach Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Maritime Forest Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Southern Wet Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Xeric River Dune Year-round.
- Central and South Texas Coastal Fringe Forest and Woodland Year-round.
- Central and Upper Texas Coast Dune and Coastal Grassland Year-round.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Pondshore Year-round.
- Central Florida Herbaceous Seep Year-round.
- Central Florida Pine Flatwoods Year-round.
- Central Interior Highlands Calcareous Glade and Barrens Year-round.
- Central Interior Highlands Dry Acidic Glade and Barrens Year-round.
- Crosstimbers Oak Forest and Woodland Year-round.
- Cumberland Riverscour Year-round.
- Cumberland Sandstone Glade and Barrens Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Dry Chalk Bluff Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Dune and Coastal Grassland Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Limestone Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Maritime Forest Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Dry Upland Hardwood Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Loess Bluff Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Mesic Hardwood Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Savanna and Wet Prairie Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Floodplain Forest Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Loblolly-Hardwood Flatwoods Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Loess Bluff Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Mesic Slope Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Tidal Wooded Swamp Year-round.
- East-Central Texas Plains Pine Forest and Woodland Year-round.
- East-Central Texas Plains Post Oak Savanna and Woodland Year-round.
- East-Central Texas Plains Riparian Forest Year-round.
- Edwards Plateau Limestone Savanna and Woodland Year-round.
- Florida Big Bend Fresh-Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Florida Big Bend Salt-Brackish Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Florida Dry Prairie Year-round.
- Florida Panhandle Beach Vegetation Year-round.
- Florida Peninsula Inland Scrub Year-round.
- Floridian Highlands Freshwater Marsh Year-round.
- Louisiana Beach Year-round.
- Lower Mississippi River Dune Woodland and Forest Year-round.
- Lower Mississippi River Flatwoods Year-round.
- Mississippi Delta Maritime Forest Year-round.
- Mississippi River Alluvial Plain Dry-Mesic Loess Slope Forest Year-round.
- Mississippi River Bottomland Depression Year-round.
- Mississippi River Low Floodplain (Bottomland) Forest Year-round.
- Mississippi River Riparian Forest Year-round.
- Mississippi Sound Salt and Brackish Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Nashville Basin Limestone Glade Year-round.
- Northern Crowley's Ridge Sand Forest Year-round.
- Ouachita Montane Oak Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- Ozark-Ouachita Dry Oak Woodland Year-round.
- Ozark-Ouachita Dry-Mesic Oak Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- Ozark-Ouachita Mesic Hardwood Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- Ozark-Ouachita Riparian Year-round.
- Ozark-Ouachita Shortleaf Pine-Bluestem Woodland Year-round.
- Ozark-Ouachita Shortleaf Pine-Oak Forest and Woodland Year-round.
- Red River Large Floodplain Forest Year-round.
- Ridge and Valley Calcareous Valley Bottom Glade and Woodland Year-round.
- South Florida Bayhead Swamp Year-round.
- South Florida Cypress Dome Year-round.
- South Florida Dwarf Cypress Savanna Year-round.
- South Florida Everglades Sawgrass Marsh Year-round.
- South Florida Freshwater Slough and Gator Hole Year-round.
- South Florida Hardwood Hammock Year-round.
- South Florida Pine Flatwoods Year-round.
- South Florida Pine Rockland Year-round.
- South Florida Wet Marl Prairie Year-round.
- South-Central Interior / Upper Coastal Plain Wet Flatwoods Year-round.
- South-Central Interior Mesophytic Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- Southeast Florida Beach Year-round.
- Southeast Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock Year-round.
- Southeastern Great Plains Tallgrass Prairie Year-round.
- Southern Blackland Tallgrass Prairie Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Blackwater River Floodplain Forest Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Dry Upland Hardwood Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- Southern Coastal Plain Herbaceous Seepage Bog Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Hydric Hammock Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Cypress Dome Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Oak Dome and Hammock Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Year-round.
- Southern Crowley's Ridge Mesic Loess Slope Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- Southern Interior Acid Cliff Year-round.
- Southern Interior Low Plateau Dry-Mesic Oak Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- Southern Ridge and Valley Dry Calcareous Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- Southwest Florida Beach Year-round.
- Southwest Florida Coastal Strand and Maritime Hammock Year-round.
- Southwest Florida Dune and Coastal Grassland Year-round.
- Tamaulipan Calcareous Thornscrub Year-round.
- Tamaulipan Mixed Deciduous Thornscrub Year-round.
- Texas Coastal Bend Beach Year-round.
- Texas Saline Coastal Prairie Year-round.
- Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Year-round.
- Upper Texas Coast Beach Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Catahoula Barrens Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Chenier and Upper Texas Coastal Fringe Forest and Woodland Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Mesic Hardwood Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Large River Swamp Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Nepheline Syenite Glade Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Nonriverine Wet Hardwood Flatwoods Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Calcareous Prairie Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Pine-Hardwood Flatwoods Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Pine-Hardwood Forest Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Sandhill Oak and Shortleaf Pine Forest and Woodland Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Seepage Swamp and Baygall Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Small Stream and River Forest Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Calcareous Prairie Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Upland Longleaf Pine Forest and Woodland Year-round.
- West Gulf Coastal Plain Wet Longleaf Pine Savanna and Flatwoods Year-round.
- Western Great Plains Mesquite Woodland and Shrubland Year-round.
Northeast (14)
- Acadian Low-Elevation Spruce-Fir-Hardwood Forest Year-round.
- Appalachian Hemlock-Hardwood Forest Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Fresh and Oligohaline Tidal Marsh Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Northern Tidal Salt Marsh Year-round.
- Central Appalachian Alkaline Glade and Woodland Year-round.
- Central Appalachian Oak and Pine Forest Year-round.
- Central Appalachian Pine-Oak Rocky Woodland Year-round.
- North-Central Appalachian Acidic Cliff and Talus Year-round.
- North-Central Appalachian Circumneutral Cliff and Talus Year-round.
- North-Central Interior Wet Flatwoods Year-round.
- Northeastern Interior Dry-Mesic Oak Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- Northeastern Interior Pine Barrens Year-round.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Basin Swamp and Wet Hardwood Forest Year-round.
- Northern Atlantic Coastal Plain Dry Hardwood Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
Midwest (12)
- Central Interior Acidic Cliff and Talus Year-round.
- Central Interior Calcareous Cliff and Talus Year-round.
- Central Mixedgrass Prairie Year-round.
- Central Tallgrass Prairie Year-round.
- North-Central Interior Beech-Maple Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- North-Central Interior Dry Oak Forest and Woodland Year-round.
- North-Central Interior Dry-Mesic Oak Forest and Woodland Year-round.
- North-Central Interior Maple-Basswood Forest Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- North-Central Interior Oak Savanna Year-round.
- North-Central Interior Sand and Gravel Tallgrass Prairie Year-round.
- North-Central Oak Barrens Year-round.
- Western Great Plains Wooded Draw and Ravine Year-round.
Land cover and other classes (63)
- Allegheny-Cumberland Dry Oak Forest and Woodland - Hardwood Year-round.
- Allegheny-Cumberland Dry Oak Forest and Woodland - Pine Modifier Year-round.
- Arkansas Valley Prairie and Woodland Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-Line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Loblolly Modifier Year-round.
- Atlantic Coastal Plain Fall-line Sandhills Longleaf Pine Woodland - Offsite Hardwood Modifier Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- Barren Land Year-round.
- Central Appalachian Riparian - Forest Modifier Year-round.
- Developed, Low Intensity Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Herbaceous Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Black Belt Calcareous Prairie and Woodland - Woodland Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Shortleaf Pine-Oak Forest - Hardwood Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Shortleaf Pine-Oak Forest - Mixed Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Loblolly Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Offsite Hardwood Modifier Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Open Understory Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Interior Upland Longleaf Pine Woodland - Scrub/Shrub Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Plain Dry Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Jackson Prairie and Woodland Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Forest Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Large River Floodplain Forest - Herbaceous Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Offsite Hardwood Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Open Understory Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Near-Coast Pine Flatwoods - Scrub/Shrub Understory Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Dry Upland Hardwood Forest - Offsite Pine Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Loess Plain Oak-Hickory Upland - Hardwood Modifier Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Northern Loess Plain Oak-Hickory Upland - Juniper Modifier Year-round.
- East Gulf Coastal Plain Southern Depression Pondshore Year-round.
- Eastern Great Plains Floodplain Systems Year-round.
- Eastern Great Plains Wet Meadow, Prairie, and Marsh Year-round.
- Eastern Highland Rim Prairie and Barrens - Dry Modifier Year-round.
- Florida Longleaf Pine Sandhill - Open Understory Modifier Year-round.
- Florida Longleaf Pine Sandhill - Scrub/Shrub Understory Modifier Year-round.
- Harvested Forest - Grass/Forb Regeneration Year-round.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Annual Grassland Year-round.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Forbland Year-round.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Perennial Grassland Year-round.
- Introduced Upland Vegetation - Treed Year-round.
- Lower Mississippi River Bottomland Depressions - Forest Modifier Year-round.
- Mississippi River Floodplain and Riparian Forest Year-round.
- Modified/Managed Southern Tall Grassland Year-round.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest - Mixed Modifier Year-round.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest - Virginia/Pitch Pine Modifier Year-round.
- Northeastern Interior Dry Oak Forest-Hardwood Modifier Year-round, beside its main habitat.
- Open Water (Aquaculture) Year-round.
- Quarries, Mines, Gravel Pits and Oil Wells Year-round.
- Recently Burned Grassland Year-round.
- Recently Burned Shrubland Year-round.
- South-Central Interior Large Floodplain - Herbaceous Modifier Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Bay/Gum Modifier Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Clethra Modifier Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Nupea Modifier Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Pine Modifier Year-round.
- Southern Coastal Plain Nonriverine Basin Swamp - Okefenokee Taxodium Modifier Year-round.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-(Pine) Forest - Mixed Modifier Year-round.
- Southern Piedmont Dry Oak-Heath Forest - Mixed Modifier Year-round.
- Southern Ridge and Valley Dry Calcareous Forest - Pine modifier Year-round.
- Tamaulipan Mesquite Upland Scrub Year-round.
- Tamaulipan Riparian Systems Year-round.
- Texas-Louisiana Coastal Prairie Slough Year-round.
- Unconsolidated Shore Year-round.
- Unconsolidated Shore (Lake/River/Pond) Year-round.
- Western Great Plains Depressional Wetland Systems Year-round.
- Western Great Plains Floodplain Systems Year-round.
Seasons in North Carolina
- Year-round: nests here, in all 100 counties.
Also found in its main habitats
Its main habitats in North Carolina, by how much of its habitat model each one is, with the birds most characteristic of each and the plants that grow wild there. Shared habitat, not food.
Great Horned Owl uses many habitats in North Carolina; these are its 3 most characteristic.
Floodplain and bottomland forests
Birds 71
- Lincoln's SparrowMelospiza lincolnii
- Brewer's BlackbirdEuphagus cyanocephalus
- Willow FlycatcherEmpidonax traillii
- AnhingaAnhinga anhinga
- Brown-headed CowbirdMolothrus ater
- Louisiana WaterthrushSeiurus motacilla
- Northern WaterthrushSeiurus noveboracensis
- Yellow-throated WarblerDendroica dominica
- Black-throated Blue WarblerDendroica caerulescens
- Cerulean WarblerDendroica cerulea
- Glossy IbisPlegadis falcinellus
- Great CormorantPhalacrocorax carbo
Plants 367
- Elliott's BlueberryVaccinium elliottii
- Possumhaw HollyIlex decidua
- Cherrybark OakQuercus pagoda
- Shagbark HickoryCarya ovata
- Southern Shagbark HickoryCarya carolinae-septentrionalis
- Wolf's BluegrassPoa wolfii
- Spreading SedgeCarex laxiculmis
- Blunt Broom SedgeCarex tribuloides
- Louisiana SedgeCarex louisianica
- Smooth Hedge-nettleStachys tenuifolia
- Woodland SpurgeEuphorbia obtusata
- Common Cup-plantSilphium perfoliatum
Roadsides, fields and disturbed ground
Birds 90
- Cape May WarblerDendroica tigrina
- House SparrowPasser domesticus
- Monk ParakeetMyiopsitta monachus
- Upland SandpiperBartramia longicauda
- DickcisselSpiza americana
- Grasshopper SparrowAmmodramus savannarum
- Rock PigeonColumba livia
- BobolinkDolichonyx oryzivorus
- Horned LarkEremophila alpestris
- House FinchCarpodacus mexicanus
- Vesper SparrowPooecetes gramineus
- Yellow-throated VireoVireo flavifrons
Plants 1314
- Crooked-stem AsterSymphyotrichum prenanthoides
- Canada LettuceLactuca canadensis
- Common HorseweedErigeron canadensis
- Annual FleabaneErigeron annuus
- Oakleaf FleabaneErigeron quercifolius
- Dog-fennelEupatorium capillifolium
- Ivyleaf Morning-gloryIpomoea hederacea
- Carolina Crane's-billGeranium carolinianum
- Common Evening-primroseOenothera biennis
- Cutleaf Evening-primroseOenothera laciniata
- Northern Evening-primroseOenothera parviflora
- Downy Ground-cherryPhysalis pubescens
All of roadsides, fields and disturbed ground in North Carolina
Dry forests and woodlands
Birds 54
- Red CrossbillLoxia curvirostra
- Pine WarblerDendroica pinus
- Red-cockaded WoodpeckerPicoides borealis
- Brown-headed NuthatchSitta pusilla
- Blackburnian WarblerDendroica fusca
- Red-breasted NuthatchSitta canadensis
- Bachman's SparrowAimophila aestivalis
- Brewer's BlackbirdEuphagus cyanocephalus
- Brown-headed CowbirdMolothrus ater
- Canada WarblerWilsonia canadensis
- Eastern BluebirdSialia sialis
- Louisiana WaterthrushSeiurus motacilla
Plants 217
- Chestnut OakQuercus montana
- Georgia OakQuercus georgiana
- American ChestnutCastanea dentata
- Godfrey's ThoroughwortEupatorium godfreyanum
- White ThoroughwortEupatorium album
- Sessileleaf Tick-trefoilDesmodium sessilifolium
- Leavenworth's SedgeCarex leavenworthii
- Southern LoosestrifeSteironema tonsum
- Carolina LilyLilium michauxii
- Tall BellflowerCampanulastrum americanum
- Bigleaf SnowbellStyrax grandifolius
- Delicate Rabbit-tobaccoPseudognaphalium micradenium
Sources
- USGS Gap Analysis Project habitat models (2001)
- USGS GAP year-round habitat model for Great Horned Owl Elevation sea level to 1,066 m
- USGS Gap Analysis Project range maps (2001), modeled by watershed; migratory gives no dates
- NatureServe Explorer (CC BY 4.0), habitat names
- US Census TIGER/Line counties
- Names follow the USGS Gap Analysis Project (2001)































































