Owls

Owls

  The Owls are birds of prey that belong to the order Strigiformes. There are more than 200 species of owls and they live on all continents in many different habitats except Antarctica.  All owls are carnivorous predators. Owls prey on a diversity rodents, insects, and small birds. There are even species of fish hunting owls such as the Blakiston's Fish Owl. 

  Owls are solitary active nocturnal predators but there are exceptions. The Northern Hawk Owl, the widely distributed Short-eared Owl, and Burrowing Owl are to some extent active during the day and in the twilight hours. They kill their small capture prey like rodents by using their talons to crush its skull and ribcage. Then swallow it whole. Later they regurgitate pellets with all of the indigestible parts of everything they eat. Owl pellets have everything from feathers, claws, bills, or teeth, to bones and fur. 

  All owls have a wide face with some kind of facial discs around very large eyes, short curved sharp beaks, large sharp curved talons, and long wings for their bodies. They are divided into two families. Strigidae; known as typical owls and the more specialized Tytonidae; better known as the barn owls. Barn owls have a prominent unique heart shape facial disc created by short rigid dense feathers. It is used to collect sounds and focus them to the owl's ears that are asymmetrically place on the owls head. The slight difference in the time it takes to reach both ears allows the barn owl to pinpoint the location of that sound. By moving their heads and using only the sounds the prey makes the barn owl can find and capture that prey using sound alone.  

  Owls hunt for their prey using great night vision, excellent hearing, and by using stealth. They have two forward looking eyes so large they are fix into place. Because they cannot move their eyes they swivel, bob and move their heads to help the fix the position of what it is looking at. Owls can swivel their head almost completely around allowing them to see behind their backs without moving their body. The serrated edges on the owls’ soft feathers greatly reduce the sound of flying. They can fly almost silently. This allows the owl to close in on prey like mice by surprise.