#1148 · 🐦 birds

Great Gray Owl

🇳🇱 Laplanduil ·Strix nebulosa

LCleast concern 🐦 Birds 📍 in Europe, not in NL

10 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences

1. © Fyn Kynd · CC BY-SA 4.0
2. © Alexey Zyryanov · CC BY-NC 4.0
3. © jamesbot · CC BY-NC 4.0
4. © Donna Pomeroy · CC BY-NC 4.0
5. © jim22lawrence · CC BY-NC 4.0
6. © Andrew Bazdyrev · CC BY 4.0
7. © Цемко Елизавета · CC BY-NC 4.0
8. © Aleksey Levashkin · CC BY-NC 4.0
9. © Fyn Kynd · CC BY-SA 4.0
10. © Matti Suopajärvi · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

what is it?

The great grey owl or great gray owl ( Strix nebulosa ) is a very large owl, documented as the world's largest species of owl by length. It is distributed across the Northern Hemisphere, and it is the only species in the Strix genus found in both Eastern and Western Hemispheres. In some areas it is also called Phantom of the North, cinereous owl, spectral owl, Lapland owl, spruce owl, bearded owl, and sooty owl.

base stats

NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
worldwide 7,608iNaturalist observations
threat LCleast concern

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
7,608 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
Scientifically named by Johann Reinhold Forster in 1772 (254 years ago).