93 Fun Facts About Owls

What is unusual about how an owl's eyes sit in its skull?

Bony sclerotic rings hold the eyes rigid, so an owl must swivel its whole head to look around.

Which large tufted owl with orange eyes can reach a wingspan near 188 cm?

The Eurasian Eagle-Owl is among the largest owls: females can reach about 75 cm long with wingspans near 188 cm, and its vivid orange eyes and tall ear tufts mark it across Europe and Asia.

What are the compact masses of indigestible prey remains that owls expel called?

Because owls swallow prey whole when they can, the bones, fur and scales come back up compacted, which is why researchers pick pellets apart to study owl diets.

What collective noun is commonly used to refer to a group of owls?

A group of owls is called a parliament, one of the fanciful collective nouns from the English tradition of venery; in practice most owls are solitary birds.

Roughly how far can an owl swivel its head in either direction?

An owl can turn its head about 270° in either direction, thanks to an unusually flexible neck and blood-vessel adaptations, so it looks around without moving its body.

What unique feather adaptation contributes to most owls' ability to fly almost silently?

The serrated edges on the leading flight feathers of many owl species disrupt airflow, muffling the sound of their wingbeats and enabling silent hunting.

What quirk of an owl's skull lets it pinpoint prey by sound alone?

Many owls have asymmetrically placed ear openings, one higher than the other, so sound reaches each ear at slightly different times and volumes and the brain pinpoints prey in both planes.

What do most owls mainly eat?

Most owls hunt small mammals, insects and other birds; only a few species specialise in fish.

In Greek mythology, which goddess had the owl as her sacred animal?

The owl has long been associated with wisdom, particularly in Ancient Greece, where the little owl was sacred to Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war.

What term describes female owls being larger than males in many species?

In many bird species, particularly raptors including owls, females are typically larger than males, a phenomenon known as reverse sexual dimorphism.

Which owl species has the largest facial disc of any bird?

The Great Gray Owl has the largest facial disc of any bird; the dish of feathers works like a parabolic reflector, funnelling sound so it can locate voles beneath deep snow by ear alone.

What is the primary function of an owl's facial disc?

The distinctive facial disc of an owl is made of stiff feathers that can be adjusted to channel and focus sound waves directly to their ears, enhancing their hearing.

Which owl species is the smallest in the world, weighing only about 1.4 ounces?

The Elf Owl, native to the southwestern United States and Mexico, averages about 40 g (1.4 oz), making it the world's lightest owl; the long-whiskered owlet and Tamaulipas pygmy owl rival it only in length.

Owls fall into two main families. One is Strigidae (true owls). What is the other?

Owls are divided into two primary families: Strigidae, which includes the typical or true owls, and Tytonidae, which comprises barn owls and bay owls.

Which owl has the scientific name Bubo scandiacus?

The Snowy Owl is Bubo scandiacus; once placed in its own genus as Nyctea scandiaca, it was moved into Bubo beside the eagle-owls and great horned owl after DNA studies showed they are close relatives.

Different owl species produce different calls; what is the primary purpose of an owl's hoot?

Owls hoot to attract mates and defend territory. Each species has its own calls, which also help ornithologists and birders tell them apart.

What lets owls turn their heads so far without cutting off blood to the brain?

Wide vertebral canals and joined arteries do it: the bony holes are about ten times the vertebral artery's diameter, giving slack, and connecting vessels link the carotid and vertebral arteries so flow continues during a twist.

When do most owls begin incubating their eggs?

Most owls begin incubating after the first egg is laid, so eggs hatch in sequence and nestlings differ in age and size; in lean years the youngest chicks often starve.

What colour are a barn owl's eyes?

A barn owl's eyes are black, set in its pale heart-shaped face; by contrast the snowy owl's eyes are yellow and the Eurasian eagle-owl's are orange.

The speckled brown plumage of the tawny owl lets it lie in wait unseen in which habitat?

The tawny owl is a bird of deciduous woodland; its speckled brown plumage matches bark and leaf litter, so a roosting bird often gives itself away only by its calls or by mobbing songbirds.

Which deep-hooting species is the most widely distributed true owl in the Americas?

It ranges from the subarctic to South America and is one of the few regular predators of skunk.

What term describes animals, like most owls, that are primarily active during the night?

Most owl species are nocturnal, meaning they are active and hunt primarily during the night, an adaptation that reduces competition with diurnal predators.

What is the translucent 'third eyelid' that closes horizontally across an owl's eye called?

Owls have a nictitating membrane, a transparent third eyelid that sweeps horizontally across the eye to clean and protect it, especially during hunting.

Which of these owl species is often recognized by its heart-shaped facial disc?

The Barn Owl is distinctive for its pale, often heart-shaped facial disc, which plays a role in funneling sound to its ears.

What is a young owl called?

The other three are real terms too: an eyas is a young hawk, a squab a young pigeon, and a poult a young turkey or game bird.

What are the 'ear tufts' on large owls thought to be for?

The tufts, called plumicorns, are thought to be visual signals in social displays and to break up the owl's outline; the real ear openings sit hidden under feathers at the sides of the head.

Which Disney film features Merlin's talking owl, Archimedes?

Archimedes is Merlin's grumpy, highly educated owl in Disney's 1963 film The Sword in the Stone; Bambi's owl is Friend Owl and The Fox and the Hound's is Big Mama.

What is the scientific order to which all owl species belong?

All owl species, encompassing over 200 different types, belong to the scientific order Strigiformes.

What is the typical shape of owl eggs?

Owl eggs are almost round and pure white; a near-spherical egg suits the cavities and old stick nests owls use, where camouflage matters little.

Which long-legged owl sprints across the ground after its prey?

The Burrowing Owl, a bird of open grassland and prairie rather than forest, evolved longer legs than other owls and will chase insects and small prey on foot.

What is it called when an owl grooms its feathers with beak and talons?

Preening is the grooming every bird does with its beak, repositioning feathers, re-zipping separated barbules and removing parasites; owls also scratch their facial discs with a talon.

What happens to an owl's vision at very short range?

Owls are farsighted, so anything a few centimeters away is a blur; their eyes are built to spot movement at distance, and at close range the owl relies on touch instead.

Which owl's call is written as 'Who cooks for you, who cooks for you-all'?

The Barred Owl's rhythmic hoot is written 'Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you-all?'; it is a common, vocal owl of eastern North American forests.

In some Native American cultures, owls are often seen as symbols of what?

Among many Native American peoples owls are symbols of death and ill omen; Apache and Seminole bogeyman stories warn children that an owl may carry them off if they stay out at night.

What is the primary role of an owl's powerful talons?

Owls use their sharp and powerful talons to seize, grip, and kill their prey with precision.

Which owl of Japan, China and the Russian Far East is the largest living species of owl?

It is named for the English naturalist Thomas Blakiston, who collected the original specimen at Hakodate on Hokkaido in 1883.

Owls share which toe arrangement, two pointing forward and two back, with parrots and woodpeckers?

Owls are zygodactyl, two toes forward and two back with a swivelling outer toe, like parrots and woodpeckers; most perching birds are anisodactyl, three toes forward and one back.

Rather than building from scratch, how do many owls acquire a nesting site?

Most owls build no nest of their own; they take over abandoned stick nests of hawks or crows, tree cavities, or even squirrel leaf nests, with old stick nests preferred for their firm foundation.

Because an owl packs an absolutely large eye into a small skull, what shape has the eye evolved into?

An owl's eyes are tubular rather than spherical, so a large light-gathering eye fits a small skull; the same shape appears in the eyes of some deep-sea fishes.

How many neck vertebrae does an owl have?

An owl has 14 neck vertebrae, twice the seven humans have; the extra joints let it swivel far enough to look directly behind itself.

In modern Japan, owls are generally regarded as what?

In modern Japan owls are lucky: the name fukurō can be written to read 'no hardship', and owl charms are sold for good fortune, a reversal of the bird's grim reputation in older Japanese folklore.

Which owl has some of the proportionally longest talons of any bird of prey?

The Tasmanian Masked Owl has some of the proportionally longest talons of any bird of prey; grip matters as much as length, and a great horned owl needs around 130 newtons of force to release its hold.

What are the light-sensitive retinal cells responsible for an owl's low-light vision called?

An owl's retina has a high concentration of rod-shaped cells, which are highly sensitive to light and movement, making them crucial for excellent night vision.

What are the filoplumes that let an owl feel prey it has already caught?

Filoplumes are hairlike feathers on the beak and feet that work as feelers, letting an owl sense prey in its grasp when its farsighted eyes cannot focus on anything a few centimetres away.

Which birds sometimes gather from considerable distances to mob a roosting owl and caw at it for hours?

They have good reason: owls are, alongside red-tailed hawks, perhaps the main predators of crows and their young.

What kind of coloration lets many owl species blend into their surroundings?

Many owl species have mottled, streaked, or cryptic plumage patterns that allow them to blend seamlessly with tree bark, foliage, or rocky environments, providing excellent camouflage.

To which genus do the screech-owls of the Americas belong?

American screech-owls belong to Megascops, split from the Old World scops-owls of Otus in 2003; Asio holds the eared owls, Strix the wood owls and Glaucidium the pygmy-owls.

Owls' forward-facing eyes give them which kind of sight, allowing them to judge depth much as humans do?

Owls have forward-facing eyes, giving them a wide field of binocular vision, which allows for excellent depth perception, crucial for pinpointing prey.

Which Canadian province uses the snowy owl as its avian symbol?

Quebec's avian emblem is the snowy owl, harfang des neiges in French, adopted as a symbol of the province's long northern winters.

Which man-made habitat is among the most attractive to wintering snowy owls in North America?

Airports offer flat, grassy tundra-like ground and plenty of rodents, which is why snowy owls account for an outsized share of bird strikes.

The snowy owl's breeding success is tied to the population cycles of which prey?

In boom lemming years a pair may lay up to 11 eggs; in bust years many snowy owls skip breeding entirely.

In 1886 a snowy owl landed on a steamship's rigging roughly how far from the nearest land?

The bird boarded the Nova Scotia steamship Ulunda at the edge of the Grand Banks, over 800 km (some 600 miles) from the nearest land, and was later preserved at the Nova Scotia Museum.

What is the name of Harry Potter's pet snowy owl?

Hedwig, Harry Potter's snowy owl, was a birthday gift from Hagrid in the first book; Errol and Pigwidgeon are the Weasleys' owls and Fawkes is Dumbledore's phoenix.

Early naturalists nicknamed the great horned owl after which big cat?

'Tiger of the air' stuck: it is the second-heaviest owl in North America and the heaviest in Central and South America.

The great horned owl is the official provincial bird of which province?

Alberta chose the great horned owl as its provincial bird in 1977 by a province-wide children's vote; in the boreal forest its fortunes rise and fall with the ten-year snowshoe hare cycle.

The great grey owl is the provincial bird of which Canadian province?

Manitoba's provincial bird is the great grey owl; though the longest owl in the world, its fluffy plumage hides a body lighter than most other large owls.

Great grey owls can hear and seize prey moving beneath how much snow?

Great grey owls can locate voles under 60 cm of snow by ear alone and 'snow-plunge' to a depth roughly equal to their own body length, a trick few other owls can manage.

What material do burrowing owls most often use to line their nests?

Researchers once thought the dung masked the scent of the chicks; it now seems to regulate the burrow's microclimate and attract insect prey.

The burrowing owl was first described in 1782 from which country?

Chilean-born Jesuit naturalist Juan Ignacio Molina named it Strix cunicularia in his 1782 natural history of Chile; the epithet comes from the Latin for 'burrower' or 'miner'.

What do elf owls do when they are handled by a predator?

Elf owls play dead when caught: a limp owl encourages the predator to relax its grip, buying the sparrow-sized bird a chance to escape.

Elf owls often nest in abandoned woodpecker holes in which plant?

Saguaro cactus holes suit them: elf owls prefer north-facing cavities and strip out any vegetation left inside, nesting on a bare floor.

The elf owl's species name whitneyi honours Josiah Whitney, a man of what profession?

Josiah Dwight Whitney was a geologist who led the California Geological Survey; James Graham Cooper named the owl for him in 1861 from a specimen taken near Fort Mohave, and Mount Whitney also honours him.

Which small owl was introduced to Britain at the end of the 19th century?

The little owl was introduced to England in the 1880s and 1890s, notably by Lord Lilford in Northamptonshire, and was also released in New Zealand's South Island from 1906.

What did the ancient world nickname the owl-stamped Athenian tetradrachm?

Glaux means 'little owl' in Greek, and numismatists still just call the coin an 'owl'.

Which philosopher wrote that the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only at dusk?

Hegel wrote in the preface to his Philosophy of Right (1820) that 'the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk': philosophy understands an era only as it ends.

In 2007 an eagle-owl named Bubi stopped a football match for six minutes in which city?

Bubi landed on the pitch at Helsinki's Olympic Stadium during a Finland–Belgium Euro 2008 qualifier in June 2007, and the Finnish team took the nickname Huuhkajat, 'the eagle-owls'.

What is the scientific name of the Eurasian eagle-owl?

The Eurasian eagle-owl is Bubo bubo, a tautonym whose epithet dates from Linnaeus's 1758 description; Bubo virginianus is the great horned owl, Bubo africanus the spotted eagle-owl and Strix uralensis the Ural owl.

The short-eared owl occurs on every continent except Antarctica and which other?

Australia misses out even though the short-eared owl breeds from Europe and the Americas to Hawaii and the Galápagos, one of the widest ranges of any bird.

What is the Hawaiian name for the islands' native short-eared owl?

The pueo is its own subspecies, A. f. sandwichensis, named for the Sandwich Islands.

The extinct laughing owl, last recorded dead in 1914, was native to which country?

The laughing owl, or whēkau, was endemic to New Zealand; the last specimen was found dead at Bluecliffs Station, Canterbury, in July 1914, after stoats introduced to control rabbits overwhelmed it.

Ornimegalonyx, a 1.1 m tall giant owl thought to be the largest ever, lived on which island?

Ornimegalonyx lived on Cuba until the late Pleistocene; flightless or nearly so, it ran down hutias and small ground sloths, and its bones were at first mistaken for a terror bird's.

What nickname is given to a hybrid of a barred owl and a spotted owl?

The hybrid is nicknamed a 'sparred owl', a blend of the parents' names; only 47 hybrids turned up among some 9,000 banded spotted owls, so interbreeding is rare.

Barred owls spreading west since the 1960s have become a major threat to which native owl?

The northern spotted owl, already squeezed by old-growth logging, is outcompeted by the bigger, more aggressive barred owl, which crossed the continent helped by fire suppression, tree planting and a warming climate.

In November 2020 a tiny saw-whet owl was found dehydrated in the wrapped branches of which landmark's Christmas tree during installation?

Nicknamed Rocky after Rockefeller Center, she had ridden 170 miles from Oneonta, New York, inside the wrapped spruce and was released upstate after a check-up.

North America's boreal owl is known in Europe and Asia by what name?

Peter Gustaf Tengmalm was a Swedish naturalist; in North America it is occasionally Richardson's owl.

The day-active northern hawk-owl is the only living species in which genus?

The northern hawk-owl is the sole living member of Surnia; its flight is often likened to a Cooper's hawk, and it may fill a hawk-like daytime niche in the boreal forest.

The Ainu people of which Japanese island revere Blakiston's fish owl as Kotan koru Kamuy, the god that protects the village?

Hokkaido's Ainu call it Kotan koru Kamuy; the owl, one of the world's largest, nests in huge old riverside trees and fishes at night in stretches of river that stay unfrozen through the Hokkaido winter.

The famous 'tu-whit, tu-whoo' owl call from Shakespeare is actually what?

The female gives the kew-wick and the male answers with the hoot; Love's Labour's Lost put them in one bird's beak.

Bird photographer Eric Hosking lost an eye in 1937 to an attack by which owl?

A tawny owl struck Hosking in the face at its nest in 1937, costing him an eye; he took it in stride, titling his 1970 autobiography An Eye for a Bird.

With no tawny owls present, which species has become Ireland's dominant owl?

Elsewhere tawny owls eat or evict the weaker long-eared owl; in Ireland it has the woods to itself.

Which possum-hunting Ninox species is the largest owl on its home continent?

The powerful owl (Ninox strenua) is Australia's largest owl; about three-quarters of its diet is arboreal mammals such as ringtail possums, and it often roosts by day clutching last night's catch.

Pel's fishing owl is named after a Dutch colonial governor of which modern country?

Hendrik Pel governed the Dutch Gold Coast, in present-day Ghana, from 1840 to 1850; the owl snatches fish and frogs from African rivers at night.

What unusual colour are the eyelids of Verreaux's eagle-owl, Africa's largest owl?

Verreaux's eagle-owl has pink eyelids, unique among owls; its eyes are dark brown, so the lids may do the display work that orange eyes do in other eagle-owls.

Northern pygmy-owls carry a pair of false 'eyespots' on which part of the body?

Two black, white-edged patches on the back of the head mimic eyes; the false eyespots may deter predators and mobbing songbirds from attacking from behind.

What is the Māori name for the morepork owl?

Ruru is the Māori name for the morepork, New Zealand's native boobook; morepork, boobook and mopoke are all onomatopoeic renderings of its two-note call.

Which mythological river lends its name to a dark-plumaged owl of Latin America?

The Stygian owl, Asio stygius, is named for the Styx, the river of the underworld; the name suits its very dark plumage, and it ranges from Mexico and Cuba to South America.

Instead of hooting, what sound does the barn owl make?

The barn owl gives a drawn-out, rasping screech rather than a hoot; that eerie cry earned it folk names like ghost owl, demon owl and hobgoblin owl.

Farmers in Israel and which neighbour swapped rodent pesticides for barn owls?

Jordan joined Israel's barn-owl project, led by Tel Aviv University's Yossi Leshem, in which nest boxes in farmland replaced rodent poisons; a barn owl family can take thousands of rodents a year.

In Hinduism, the owl is the vahana (mount) of which goddess?

As Lakshmi's vehicle, especially in eastern India, the owl stands for wealth and good fortune.

Which Aztec god was often depicted with owls?

Mictlantecuhtli, the Aztec lord of the dead, was often shown with owls, birds of death across Mesoamerica; a Mexican saying survives: 'When the owl sings, the Indian dies.'

In 2008, TRAFFIC reported the seizure of 900 plucked, 'oven-ready' owls in which country?

The owls were seized in Peninsular Malaysia in November 2008, the first known haul of ready-prepared owls there, raising fears of a new wild-meat trade likely bound for China.

Pliny recorded that Rome was ritually purified after an owl strayed into which building?

Pliny's Natural History says an eagle-owl (bubo) entered the shrine on the Capitol and the city was purified in consequence; Romans saw the owl as a funereal bird, and Virgil gave it a death howl.

In the Maya Popol Vuh, owls serve as messengers of which underworld?

Xibalba is the Mayan 'Place of Fright'; across Mesoamerica the owl meant death and destruction.