Great Gray Owl from 2012

This is a Great Gray Owl, seen NW of Calgary, way back on 25 May 2012. Made a great sighting on my birthday! Love it when these huge owls land on a variety of perches - some photogenic, others not. This was more or less a black silhouette in my original photo, but some brightening (perhaps not quite enough) brought out - an owl with feathers : )

In the link to Wikipedia below, there is an interesting diagram showing just how much of this bulk is skeleton and how much is thick plumage.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Grey_Owl

"Although the Great Gray Owl is the tallest American owl with the largest wingspan, it is just a ball of feathers. It preys on small mammals and has relatively small feet. Both the Great Horned and Snowy owls weigh half again as much, and have larger feet and talons. The oldest recorded Great Gray Owl was at least 18 years, 9 months old and lived in Alberta." From AllABoutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Gray_Owl/lifehistory