Top 15 Amazing Facts About Owls...
Owls are enigmatic birds, by turns mysterious, lovable, or spooky, depending on who you ask.
With over 200 species living on every continent except Antarctica, owls have super-tuned senses
that help them hunt prey all over the world. And they’re pretty darn cute, too.
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1. OWLS CAN TURN THEIR HEADS ALMOST ALL THE WAY AROUND—BUT NOT QUITE.
It’s a myth that owls can rotate their heads 360 degrees. The birds can actually turn their
necks 135 degrees in either direction, which gives them 270 degrees of total movement.
According to scientists, bone adaptations, blood vessels with contractile reservoirs,
and a supporting vascular network allow the owls to turn their heads that far without
cutting off blood to the brain.
2. OWLS HAVE FAR-SIGHTED, TUBULAR EYES.
Instead of spherical eyeballs, owls have "eye tubes" that go far back into their skulls—which
means their eyes are fixed in place, so they have to turn their heads to see. The size
of their eyes helps them see in the dark, and they're far-sighted, which allows them
to spot prey from yards away. Up close, everything is blurry, and they depend on small, hair-like
feathers on their beaks and feet to feel their food.
3. THEY HAVE SUPER-POWERED HEARING.
Owls are capable of hearing prey under leaves, plants, dirt, and snow. Some owls have sets
of ears at different heights on their heads, which lets them locate prey based on tiny
differences in sound waves. Other owls have flat faces with special feathers that focus
sound, essentially turning their faces into one big ear. (The “ear tufts” on some
owls are feathers.)
4. OWL FLIGHT IS SILENT.
Unlike most birds, owls make virtually no noise when they fly. They have special feathers
that break turbulence into smaller currents, which reduces sound. Soft velvety down further
muffles noise.
5. OWLS SWALLOW PREY WHOLE, THEN BARF UP THE CARCASS.
Getting killed by an owl is gruesome. First the owl grabs the prey and crushes it to death
with its strong talons. Then, depending on the size, it either eats the prey whole or
rips it up. The owl’s digestive tract processes the body, and the parts that can’t be digested,
like fur and bones, are compacted into a pellet, which the owl later regurgitates. Sometimes,
those pellets are collected for kids to dissect in school.
6. THEY SOMETIMES EAT OTHER OWLS.
Not only do owls eat surprisingly large prey (some species, like the eagle owl, can even
grab small deer), they also eat other species of owls. Great horned owls, for example, will
attack the barred owl. The barred owl, in turn, sometimes eats the Western screech-owl.
In fact, owl-on-owl predation may be a reason why Western screech-owl numbers have declined.
7. OWLS FEED THE STRONGEST BABIES FIRST.
As harsh as it sounds, the parents always feed the oldest and strongest owlet before
its sibling. This means that if food is scarce, the youngest chicks will starve. After an
owlet leaves the nest, it often lives nearby in the same tree, and its parents still bring
it food. If it can survive the first winter on its own, its chances of survival are good.
8. THEY'RE MASTERS OF CAMOUFLAGE.
Many owls sleep in broad daylight, but the colors and markings on their feathers—like
the African Scops Owl, above—let them blend in with their surroundings.
9. SOMETIMES THEY MAKE A TERRIFYING HISSING NOISE.
Aside from hooting, owls make a variety of calls, from screeches to whistles to squeaks.
The barn owl hisses when it feels threatened, which sounds like something from a nightmare.
10. ELF OWLS LIVE IN CACTI.
The smallest owl is the elf owl, which lives in the southwestern United States and Mexico.
It will sometimes make its home in the giant saguaro cactus, nesting in holes made by other
animals. However, the elf owl isn’t picky and will also live in trees or on telephone
poles.
11. BURROWING OWLS TAKE OVER PRAIRIE DOG TOWNS—AND HUNT WITH POOP.
The long-legged burrowing owl lives in South and North America. One of the few owls that
is active during the daytime, it nests in the ground, moving into tunnels excavated
by other animals such as prairie dogs. They’ll also dig their own homes if necessary. Then,
they'll surround the entrances to their burrows with dung and "sit at the burrow entrance
all day long and it looks like they're doing nothing," University of Florida zoologist
Douglas Levey told National Geographic. But they're doing nothing: They're fishing. The
poop is bait for dung beetles, one of the owls' favorite types of prey. "Everybody who
studies burrowing owls knows they bring dung back to their burrows, and they know that
burrowing owls eat a lot of dung beetles. 12. OWLS ARE NATURAL PEST CONTROL FOR FARMERS.
Owls eat a lot of rodents. A single barn owl family will eat 3000 rodents in a four-month
breeding cycle. One owl can eat 50 pounds of gophers in a year. Many farmers are installing
owl nesting boxes in the hopes that owls will clean out pests like gophers and voles from
their land. This natural form of pest control is safer and cheaper than using poison, and
it’s better for the owls too. Many owls die each year from eating rodents that have
been poisoned.
13. OWLS WERE ONCE A SIGN OF VICTORY IN BATTLE ...
In ancient Greece, the Little Owl was the companion of Athena, the Greek goddess of
wisdom, which is one reason why owls symbolize learning and knowledge. But Athena was also
a warrior goddess and the owl has considered the protector of armies going into war. If
Greek soldiers saw an owl fly by during battle, they took it as a sign of coming victory.
14. AND A SYMBOL OF DEATH.
From ancient times on, owls have been linked with death, evil, and other superstitions.
Many cultures saw owls as a sign of impending death. For example, an owl was said to have
predicted the death of Julius Caesar. They’ve also been associated with witches and other
so-called evil beings. While this may sound like Halloween fun, many cultures still have
superstitions about owls and in some places, owls are killed based on these beliefs.
15. OWLS AND HUMANS GENERALLY GET ALONG. Owls have been popular since ancient times.
They show up in Egyptian hieroglyphs and the 30,000-year-old cave paintings in France.
Falconers have used owls since the Middle Ages, although not as commonly as other birds.
Today, we still love owls. Though it’s illegal to keep them as pets in the United States,
they’re intelligent and sociable. (Most of the time, anyway—owls can attack humans
when feeling threatened.) In Japan, there are even owl cafés, where you can hang out
with owls while drinking tea.
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