Fun Facts

Fascinating Facts About Owls 

Owls are magical birds that fascinate everyone. There are some very interesting facts that are unique to this bird.

VISION: Owls’ eyes are the same size as humans’, even though their heads are smaller. Owls’ round, tube-shaped eyes allow enhanced vision, but they cannot rotate them. To compensate their necks are flexible, allowing their heads to turn 270 ̊ left or right, and 90 ̊up.

Owls can focus their eyes ten times faster than humans, thus allowing rapid adjustments in flight to avoid collisions. Owls have a “third eyelid” called a nictitating membrane (which is translucent) that they lower over the eye during flight allowing hunting without having to blink and thereby missing their prey.

HEARING: Owls have an acute sense of hearing with symmetrical ear openings which perceive sound in 3/100,000th of a second. Therefore they can hear mice under the snow. The large feather discs on their faces concentrate sound waves, like putting your hand behind your ear to focus on a sound.

Owls are the only birds with silent flight, allowed by a fringe of short feathers on the edges of the wings which muffles the sound. This is being used in aerodynamics to improve airplanes. Owls tend to hunt at night to prey on mice, rabbits, voles, and skunks.

NESTING: The female owl is larger than the male, allowing for egg production and generating heat to incubate the eggs. The male often brings prey to the female so she wont leave the eggs on a cold night (T. Warren).