- Story Ideas - Send Corrections Nice to see you again. Most
birds are thinking of surviving the winter cold by going south
or producing layers of fat and new types of insulating feathers.
Right now, and into late January, the Great Horned Owls are
already going through their courtship hooting rituals. Since
they mate for life most pairs by their intense hooting, are just
resurfacing old bonds. Sometime in late January the females will
have found a suitable nesting site in their territory. Since
these owls don’t build their own nests, they must rely on last
year’s nests of crows, red-tailed hawks, and even squirrel leaf
clusters to lay their two to five eggs. When Great Horned Owls
live in suburban areas, ledges of buildings have been used.
Because of the cold weather, eggs are incubated as soon as they
are layed. The late layed eggs hatch out three to four days
later, causing possible death. Bird, like chickens or pheasants,
lay all their eggs - usually one a day - before incubation, so
they all hatch out at