And even though it seems that owls can twist their head completely around, most owls turn their head no more than 270 degrees in either direction.įeathers: Another important adaptation for owls is silent flight. However, having fixed eyes gives owls better focus, with both eyes looking in the same direction. Instead, owls move their entire head to follow the movement of prey. With owls, the eyes are so big in comparison to the head that there is little room for eye muscles, meaning owls can’t move their eyes. Vision: Wildlife that are active at night usually have large eyes that let them make use of any available light. Owl ears don’t look like our ears, but they are incredibly good at picking up sounds. Hearing: Did you know that an owl can hear a mouse stepping on a twig from 75 feet (23 meters) away? Every owl has two huge holes in its skull for ears, along with a facial disc that channels sound into the ear openings. An owl has the best night vision of any animal, and its hearing is amazing, too.
Look for owls near your home, and see if you can identify your local owls.Įverything about an owl’s body makes it the ideal bird for night living. You have to look carefully at their facial disc (for example, all barn owls have a heart-shaped facial disc, whereas typical owls have a round one), their feet, and whether or not they have ear tufts. Even scientists have trouble placing some of them into the correct family group: barn owls or "typical" owls. While most of us have no problem identifying an owl-just look for that round face, sharp, hooked bill, and large eyes-it’s not as easy to distinguish between different kinds of owls. Far from fearing them, we should appreciate owls as competent predators that hunt mice and other rodents, helping to maintain a balance in nature. But there’s nothing supernatural about the acute hearing and sight of owls. We think of them flying silently over churchyards, and their eyes seem to glow in the dark. Of course, we know that most are nocturnal, and their nighttime habits may make them seem scary or spooky to us. What makes owls so mysterious to us? They have had a powerful hold on the human imagination across centuries and cultures, appearing as warnings of doom and as symbols of wisdom.
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