For centuries, owls have been known as mysterious creatures of the night.
In many cultures, owls symbolize wisdom and magic, which only makes sense for one of the
most intelligent bird species on the planet.
From 4 inches to almost 3 feet tall, owls come in different shapes and sizes.
Although they’re mostly harmless to humans, owls still have their share of creepy traits.
Here are 30 Owl Facts that you’d have to watch out for.
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Most of an owl's legs are hidden.
Although owls look stocky at first glance, they actually have incredibly long legs hidden
by their plump bodies.
The full length of an owl’s legs can’t usually be seen unless its body is lifted
higher or when its legs drop down during flight.
Owls are one of the oldest types of birds.
Owls are considered to be the earliest bird species due to sharing similar traits with
prehistoric birds.
These ancient birds include the Berruornis and the Ogygoptynx that lived over 60 million
years ago.
This makes owls one of the most ancient types of birds, along with chickens, pheasants,
and turkeys.
The owl's hoot has several uses.
Owls hoot as a primary communication with other owls.
However, research has shown that owls also do this to claim their territory and warn
others of its presence.
This way, the hoot prevents intruders from entering their territory.
Owls have around 14 vertebrates in their neck.
While humans and birds have 7 vertebrates in their neck, owls have double the amount.
The extra vertebrates in their neck give owls a wider range of motion, with the ability
to rotate their heads 270°.
An owl's eye color indicates its hunting preferences.
An owl’s eye color is an evolutionary trait that allows them to blend in with their surroundings
when hunting.
That said, owls with a dark brown eye color prefer to hunt at night.
Meanwhile, owls with orange eyes actively hunt during twilight.
Owls with yellow eyes are diurnal, which means they hunt during the day.
Owls have the best night vision compared to any other animal on earth.
During the night, owls have an excellent range of vision similar to that of an eagle.
Their eyes also have a reflective surface behind their retinas called the tapetum lucidum.
Throughout the films, 7 different owls played Harry Potter's owl Hedwig.
The main owl that took on the role was a trained owl named Gizmo.
Much like any seasoned actor, Gizmo had different owl doubles.
Among these owl extras were Kasper, Oops, Swoops, Oh Oh, Elmo, and Bandit.
The earliest depiction of owls dates back to 30,000 years ago.
The earliest example of owls featured in art is the image of a long-eared owl etched onto
the Chauvet cave in France.
The piece was found in the second section of the cave separate from the first chamber section.
The eyes of an owl take up most of the space in its head.
Aside from their distinct hoot, an owl’s most notable characteristic is its large eyes.
As expected, an owl’s eyes take up most of the space in their skulls.
Female owls typically have larger and heavier eyes compared to the males of their species.
For one, the eyes of a Great Horned owl weigh around 25.7 grams together, or as heavy as
a golf ball.
Not all species of owls can hoot.
Unlike regular owls, barn owls do not hoot.
Instead, these owls are known to communicate with each other through screams.
Barn owls also make hissing noises at intruders and predators who attempt to disturb its nest.
These sounds can be anywhere between 2 to 4 seconds long.
Owls are commonly associated with witchcraft in parts of South Africa.
In South Africa, owls commonly symbolize death and witchcraft due to their nocturnal habits.
Many ancient beliefs also assigned owls as the pets and servants of witches and sorcerers.
In traditional medicine, body parts from owls are often used as a common ingredient.
The largest recorded owl is now extinct.
First discovered by Oscar Paulino Arredondo de la Mata, the remains of the Ornimegalonyx
were found in Cuba in 1954.
Spanning 1.1 meters, this owl is the largest recorded owl in history.
Owls come in 2 main categories.
All owl species belong to two groups: the Tytonidae and Strigidae.
Regular owls fall under the Strigidae group, while barn owls classify under the Tytonidae group.
Generally, barn owls have heart-shaped faces, while regular owls have rounder ones.
Generally, the Strigidae group contains around 224 species of owls while the Tytonidae family
only has around 20.
Barn owls eat an average of 1,000 mice a year.
Many often use barn owls as a form of pest control from small insects and mammals such
as mice.
When owls hunt for small mammals, they swallow them whole in one piece.
On average, owls can eat around 12 mice per night.
The smallest owl in the world stands five inches tall.
True to its namesake, the Elf Owl only grows to a mere five inches tall.
This owl species only hunts for small insects and spiders as its main food source.
Elf owls typically live in woodlands and desert cactus habitats located in Southern Arizona.
Owls can swim.
While they rarely do so, owls can swim through water.
However, these birds generally avoid swimming as they have no means of defense in the water.
Owls also generally avoid getting soaked since they can’t fly with wet feathers.
The flat face of an owl funnels sounds to their ears.
The facial disc of an owl allows it to funnel sounds of their prey to their ears.
Many owl species will have their facial discs asymmetrical, since their ears are also not
aligned with each other.
Owls vomit their meals after hunting.
The owl has two stomachs.
The first is called the glandular stomach, which produces the acids and mucus in its
body to help the owl separate digestible and indigestible parts of its prey.
After swallowing its prey whole, the owl vomits out other indigestible remains such as its
fur and bones.
In total, the owl’s digestion process takes around ten hours to complete.
Owls feed their strongest children first.
When raising their young, the male owl will typically hunt for food and bring it back
to the nest.
Additionally, the female will tear up their prey into small pieces and feed them to their
babies.
The parents prioritize feeding the strongest youngling first before its other siblings.
This leaves the youngest or the weakest youngling to starve when food is scarce.
A tribe in Kazakhstan worships the owl spirit.
In this tribe, only the female shamans of the group perform rituals in an attempt to
connect with the spirit of owls.
The Kazakh tribe is separated into three major clans which include the elder tribe, the central
horde, and the junior tribe.
An owl's eyeballs are not ball-shaped at all.
Contrary to popular belief, the eyes of an owl are not round at all.
Instead, their eyes are tube-shaped or more cylindrical.
Unlike humans and other animals, owls can’t move their eyes inside their sockets.
Instead, they have to turn their heads sideways or upside down to see their surroundings.
Most owls stay active at night.
Of all owl species in the world, only two aren’t nocturnal.
These diurnal owls are known as the Northern Hawk Owl and the Northern Pygmy-Owl.
Owls are incredibly difficult to train.
Many pet owners who keep owls find it difficult to train owls properly.
This is mainly due to the bird’s nocturnal nature, which makes them less active during
the day.
A group of owls can be called by many names.
While a group of owls is more commonly known as a parliament, other names can also apply.
These include the terms congress and the lesser-used term, state.
Some may also refer to a group of owls as a flock.
Owls do not build their nests.
More commonly, an owl would take a nest left by a different bird to lay eggs.
The female owl would also take scraps of debris and other materials to make the nest sturdier
and softer for its eggs.
Around 90% of barn owls will nest once a year, while the remaining 10% will nest twice.
However, more commonly, an owl never uses the same nest twice.
Owls molt their feathers at least once a year.
Owls molt their feathers to replace old and damaged ones.
The molting process for owls takes around 3 months to complete and happens simultaneously
all over its body.
Owls also have molting patterns that allow them to molt different layers of feathers
at a time.
Owls have three eyelids.
The owl’s upper eyelid closes downwards when it blinks.
Meanwhile, the lower eyelid closes when the owl is sleeping.
Lastly, the third eyelid of the owl is called the nictitating membrane, which protects the
eye from dust and keeps it moist.
Shakespeare once described an owl as a fatal bellman.
In his play Macbeth, Shakespeare depicted owls as messengers of death.
Generally speaking, a bellman’s job to ring the parish bell when someone is near death.
It is illegal to keep an owl as a pet in the United States.
The US government only allows a person to keep an owl as a pet after they complete training
and acquire a proper license.
However, more places in the world prohibits the domestication of owls.
These laws are established to prevent the extinction of certain owl species in the world.
The great horned owl can curl its talons with incredible strength.
The great horned owl can clamp its talons with a force of around 300 pounds per square inch.
If you have a hard time picturing that, this force is as powerful as the strongest human bite.
Great horned owls use these talons to latch onto their prey and keep them from escaping.
With this force, the owl can instantly crush and devour its prey.
Strange traits and disturbing anatomy aside, owls aren’t as bad as you may think.
Behind their observant eyes and fearsome talons are a species essential to maintaining the
balance of the ecosystem.
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