Due to our Nature Community associate the Alberta Wilderness Affiliation for offering this month’s weblog.
Nature Canada edit 2026: Is it Nice Grey Owl or Nice Gray Owl? It may be each! Whereas Canada normally makes use of gray when speaking about color, when speaking about owls, we normally use Nice Grey however Nice Gray can be utilized interchangeably. The owls we all know don’t appear to thoughts.
Photograph by: Jay Frandsen
Within the Discovery Channel model of the Nice Grey Owl, you may see the predatory chook swooping soundlessly via a gap in a mountain forest. It could dip low, and glide on broad wings spanning 4 to 5 ft, trying to find its favorite eating possibility — voles, a small rodent.
You’ll see its grey plumage with flecks of white and brown. Because it closes in on its prey, you may be shocked to see this owl’s furry ft look extra like a kitten’s paws than predatory birds’ talons. Its spherical, pale yellow eyes, set in a spherical face with concentric circles — nearly like tree rings — would shine again at you.
However in actuality, and to the dismay of many birders, most individuals won’t ever really see considered one of these owls in actual life. It’s because the chook is elusive: we don’t have a lot details about their numbers within the wild, and thus they’re thought-about “knowledge poor” by the federal authorities.
They don’t are likely to go the place individuals are, and also you additionally received’t possible see them flock overhead because the leaves flip or the timber bud. These birds aren’t recognized emigrate far; they usually breed and winter in the identical space inside Canada. The federal authorities says the chook has a common nesting interval that begins someday between mid-March and mid-April and ends round late June to early July, relying on the area. Their populations can change dramatically relying on the cyclic modifications to vole populations, based on federal knowledge.
In Canada, Nice Grays are likely to stay in dense, moist evergreen forests of the far north, also called taiga. However, your finest wager to see them is once they journey south looking for meals throughout an irruptive 12 months, the place small mammal inhabitants numbers are low within the north. In any other case, these owls will hunt in northern meadows, bogs, or different open areas with few timber. Forest harvest is the biggest human impression on their populations, because the removing of perch and nest timber reduces breeding habitat high quality.
Nice Grey Owl Searching (Photograph: Robert Taylor)
Energy of the Grey
At first look, Nice Grays seem giant for an owl — between the scale of a crow and Canada goose — however they solely weigh between 1.5 to three.75 kilos. In comparison with different owls, Snowy Owls and Nice Horned Owls are usually heavier.
That stated, Nice Grey Owls are highly effective. Regardless of weighing lower than a cantaloupe, they’ve been recognized to interrupt via hard-packed snow whereas on the hunt for prey. In keeping with Cornell Lab’s All About Birds web site, one Nice Grey broke via snow that was exhausting sufficient to assist a 176-pound human. They common a lifespan of about seven years within the wild. Nonetheless, the oldest recorded Nice Grey Owl lived in Alberta and was almost 19 years previous when it was present in 2013, after being hit by a automotive.
A Image of Wildness
The Nice Grey Owl has been a logo for Alberta Wilderness Affiliation (AWA) for almost your complete historical past of the group.
Since 1965, AWA has been advocating for the safety of wilderness and wildlife within the province. We battle for habitat safety throughout the land, from the northern forests the place Nice Grey Owls stay to the mountain slopes and the windswept prairies. We battle in opposition to clearcutting and logging of boreal forest, in addition to oil and fuel growth and mining that are fragmenting our lands. We argue for the conservation of delicate ecosystems which, as soon as misplaced, are troublesome to regain. And, via our work, we intention to assist Albertans perceive the worth of untamed areas and wildlife, like the gorgeous and elusive Nice Grey.
Visitor blogger Amy Tucker (foreground) with workers members of the Alberta Wilderness Affiliation.
The owl was as soon as used as a brand on AWA’s earlier newsletters earlier than the Nineties. The brand advanced over time, and finally by December 1997 it took its present form. As AWA progressed and created its personal annual awards night time, the brand model of the owl was named “ERNIE,” which was an acronym to explain the aim of the awards. The title by no means caught; nonetheless, AWA continues to current the Nice Grey Owl award every November to volunteers for excellent devotion and energy. Just like the Nice Grey Owl, with never-ending endurance and dedication to goal, these people work in quiet knowledge to preserve wilderness habitat and wild creatures.
The Nice Grey embodies wildness, energy and sweetness. As AWA heads into its sixtieth 12 months, the Nice Grey Owl will proceed to signify our fierce defence of untamed locations.
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