Inter and intraspecific interactions between Redtailed Hawks and Great Horned Owls in central Ohio

Abstract. Interspecific relationships between Red-tailed hawks and Great horned owls reveal distinct chronological activities that facilitate their inter-related nesting patterns. The hawk to owl ratio in the study area in 1976 was approximately 1.3: 1. This proximal nesting may have had some effect upon Red-tailed Hawk success, in that Great Horned Owl predation on Red-tailed Hawks was related to their inter-specific nesting distances. Although Great Horned Owls partially depend upon Red-tailed Hawks for their nest sites (59%) and the diet of these two raptors do overlap in some prey selected, direct competition for these resources is minimized by the temporal segregation of their breeding chronologies and their daily activity patterns