Xcel Energy Owl Cam
Owl Cam
Active: February - May
Valmont Power Station, Boulder, CO
Our Owl Cam features a family of great horned owls that live in a nest box installed 260 feet up one of the stacks at Xcel Energy’s Valmont Station in Boulder, Colorado. Because of the nocturnal habits of owls, we use an infrared camera at this site that operates under low-light conditions and provides images in black and white. In addition to providing streaming video, photos for the day are saved in two-minute increments and are archived in the Daily Pix section. Local time, Mountain Standard Time (MST), is used for these images.
Daily Pix
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Afternoon
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Latest News
It's getting crowded in the owl box as the young owls are quickly growing up. As space becomes scarce, mom owl will spend less time in the box -- look for her on the perch just outside the box. In the coming weeks, the young birds will begin to venture on the perch too and test their wings.
Baby owls are in the box. The first egg hatched the afternoon of March 13 after 34 days of incubation, and the second egg sometime during the morning of March 15. We have about eight weeks now to watch them grow before fledging in early May.
Through cold, snow and wind the female great horned owl at Valmont Station in Boulder, CO, continues to incubate her two eggs. We expect to see baby owls mid-March.
Nesting is underway. The female Great Horned Owl at Valmont Station produced her first egg on Friday, February 8, and a second egg sometime Monday evening, February 11. We expect to see baby owls around March 13. Watch Owl Cam during the late evening and early morning hours, to see the male owl briefly visit the box. He usually has a tasty mouse or other prey for the female.
Both a male owl and female owl have been visiting the Valmont Station nest box every night over the past several weeks. We are patiently watching and waiting for nesting to begin. In the past, we have seen eggs as early as late January.
About Owl Cam
For years great horned owls have lived at Valmont Station along with other birds and wildlife. Originally we constructed the next box for peregrine falcons, but peregrines have natural nesting sites nearby and weren’t attracted to the box. We were pleased when the great horned owls showed up. Previously they nested in areas closer to plant operations. Mother owls can be quite aggressive when protecting their young – on several occasions owls attacked our employees working too close to a nest. With their preferred nesting area now 260 feet in the air, the birds have a secluded spot for raising their young and our employees are safer.
Interested in corresponding with other Bird Cam viewers? Join the BirdCam Forum available through the Raptor Resource Project.
Owl Facts
Great Horned Owls
- Great horned owls are among the largest North American owls, at about 23-25 inches tall, with a wingspan greater than four feet, yellow eyes and fluffy feather tufts that resemble horns.
- Known for fierceness, great horned owls feed on a large variety of prey. They are referred to as the “tiger of the air” eating everything from mice and rats to squirrels, rabbits and even skunks. They can eat skunks because they are “sight hunters” and do not have a highly developed sense of smell. They will also capture both small and large birds.
- Male and female birds are similar, but females tend to be larger, with more markings.
- They live in a variety of habitats, including forests, swamps and desert canyons, and can be found from just south of the Arctic tundra in Canada to the pampas of South America. They breed in every American state including Alaska.
- Great horned owls are among the first birds to nest, laying eggs in January or February. The female typically lays two to three white eggs that hatch in about one month. When first hatched, the babies are white.
