Snyder's (Bubo virginianus scalariventris) Great Horned Owl

Snyder's Great Horned Owl on the nest on Manitoulin Island. This year's nest is a different nest from the one we saw in 2003 and 2004 about 20 km away. See http://www.jeaniron.ca/Owls/snyders.htm Digiscoped from the road on 8 April 2006.

This is a pale northern subspecies of the Great Horned Owl, whose range is almost entirely in northern Ontario. Its facial discs are pale grey and its plumage is much paler than the typical Great Horned Owl of southern Ontario. This subspecies was described in 1961 by L.L. Snyder of the Royal Ontario Museum who named the breeding population in northern Ontario as Bubo virginianus scalariventris.

Reference: L.L. Snyder. Curator of Birds. On an Unnamed Population of the Great Horned Owl. Contribution No. 54. 1961. The Royal Ontario Museum.