Owl
Strigidae
Tytonidae
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An
owl is any of some 200+
species of solitary
nocturnal birds of prey in the
order Strigiformes. Owls mostly hunt small
mammals, insects, and other
birds, though a few species specialize in hunting
fish. They are found on all the Earth's land except for
Antarctica, most of
Greenland, and some remote islands.
Owls have large forward-facing eyes and ears, a
hawk-like
beak, and a conspicuous circle of feathers around each eye called the
facial disk. Although owls have
binocular vision, their large eyes are fixed in their sockets, and they must turn their entire heads to change views.
Owls are far-sighted, and are unable to clearly see anything within a few inches of their eyes. However, their vision, particularly in low light, is excellent.
Many owls can also hunt by sound in total darkness. The facial disc helps to funnel the sound of
rodents to their ears, which for better directional location are widely spaced and in some species placed asymmetrically.
Despite their appearance, owls are more closely related to whippoorwills and other
nightjars or
Caprimulgiformes than to
hawks and other diurnal predators (see
Falconiformes). Some taxonomists place the nightjars in the same
order as owls, as in the
Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy.
Owls' powerful clawed feet and sharp beak let them tear their prey to pieces before eating. Their muffled wings and dull feathers allow them to fly almost silently and unseen. Scientists studying the diets of owls are helped by its habit of disgorging the indigestible parts of their diet, bones, scales, and fur in pellet form. These "owl pellets" are often sold by companies to schools to be dissected by students as a lesson in biology and ecology, because they are plentiful and easy to interpret.
Owl eggs are white and almost spherical, and range in number from a few to a dozen in some owls. Their nests are crudely built and may be in trees, underground burrows or barns and caves.
- ORDER STRIGIFORMES
- Family Tytonidae: barn owls, 12 to 18 species
- Family Strigidae: typical owls, about 195 species.
- Proposed family Athena, although crows, rooks and many other common birds are more intelligent. The Ancient Egyptians made a representation of an owl into their hieroglyph for "m", although they would often draw this hieroglyph with its legs broken to keep the bird of prey from coming to life and attacking. In Japanese culture, the bird is a symbol of death and seeing one is considered a bad omen. The taboo surrounding owls in Hopi culture regards them as a dirty and ominous creature. When school boards were reviewing the content of fiction in children's reading textbooks in 2003 for multicultural sensitivity, they concluded that stories and comprehension questions about owls, just as with traditionally "scary" creatures like snakes and scorpions, must be removed from new textbooks and reading curricula, lest a child of a Southwest American Indian culture be frightened by a question on owls and distracted on the test.
