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30 sourced facts

Fun Facts About Owls

Silent flight, lopsided ears and eyes that cannot move: true facts about owls.

Owls cannot move their eyes.

Owls fly almost silently.

Some owls have one ear higher than the other.

Owls swallow small prey whole and cough up the bones as pellets.

Owls can turn their heads about 270 degrees.

Owl eyes are tube-shaped, not round.

Burrowing owls live underground.

A group of owls is called a parliament.

Snowy owls hunt in daylight.

The Eurasian eagle-owl has a wingspan of up to about 1.9 meters.

There are more than 200 species of owl.

The elf owl is one of the smallest owls in the world.

Blakiston’s fish owl is one of the largest owls and catches fish.

A barn owl’s heart-shaped face works like a satellite dish.

The barn owl is one of the most widespread birds in the world.

Owls can swivel one toe backward.

Owls are far-sighted.

An owl’s "ears" on top of its head are just feathers.

In ancient Greece, the little owl was a symbol of wisdom and of the goddess Athena.

Harry Potter’s owl Hedwig is a snowy owl.

Not all owls are nocturnal.

The classic "hoot" is mostly a territorial call.

Many owls are camouflaged to look like tree bark.

Small birds gang up on owls in daylight.

Owl eggs are almost always white.

Owl chicks hatch days apart.

Snowy owls can eat over 1,000 lemmings a year.

The northern spotted owl became a symbol of US forest protection.

Barn owls can catch mice in complete darkness.

Fun Facts About Owls: all 30, explained

Owls cannot move their eyes.
An owl’s eyes are tube-shaped and held in place by bony rings, so they cannot roll in their sockets. Instead, owls can turn their heads about 270 degrees, thanks to extra neck vertebrae and special blood vessel adaptations.
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Owls fly almost silently.
The front edges of many owls’ flight feathers are comb-like and their surfaces are soft, which breaks up the turbulence that makes noise. That lets them swoop on prey without being heard.
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Some owls have one ear higher than the other.
Barn owls and several other species have ear openings at different heights. Sound reaches each ear at slightly different times and volumes, which lets the owl pinpoint prey in complete darkness.
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Owls swallow small prey whole and cough up the bones as pellets.
Owls cannot digest bones, fur or feathers, so their stomach packs them into a pellet that the owl brings back up. Scientists and school classes dissect owl pellets to see what owls eat.
Source: Pellet (ornithology) (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Owls can turn their heads about 270 degrees.
Extra vertebrae in the neck and special blood vessels that keep blood flowing let owls look far behind them.
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Owl eyes are tube-shaped, not round.
The long shape gathers lots of light for seeing at night, but the eyes are fixed in place, which is why owls turn their heads.
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Burrowing owls live underground.
These small owls of the Americas nest in burrows, often ones dug by prairie dogs or ground squirrels.
Source: Burrowing owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
A group of owls is called a parliament.
The term comes from old collective nouns and was popularized in part by C. S. Lewis, who used it in "The Silver Chair".
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Snowy owls hunt in daylight.
In the Arctic summer the sun barely sets, so snowy owls are active by day as well as night.
Source: Snowy owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
The Eurasian eagle-owl has a wingspan of up to about 1.9 meters.
It is one of the largest owls in the world and can take prey as large as foxes and young deer.
Source: Eurasian eagle-owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
There are more than 200 species of owl.
Owls live on every continent except Antarctica.
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
The elf owl is one of the smallest owls in the world.
It is about the size of a sparrow and often nests in old woodpecker holes in saguaro cacti in the US Southwest and Mexico.
Source: Elf owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Blakiston’s fish owl is one of the largest owls and catches fish.
It lives along rivers in eastern Russia, northern China and Japan, and is endangered.
Source: Blakiston’s fish owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
A barn owl’s heart-shaped face works like a satellite dish.
The facial disk funnels sound to the ears, helping it hunt by hearing alone.
Source: Barn owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
The barn owl is one of the most widespread birds in the world.
It lives on every continent except Antarctica.
Source: Barn owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Owls can swivel one toe backward.
Their outer toe can point forward or back, so they can grip prey with two toes in front and two behind.
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Owls are far-sighted.
They see distant objects clearly but cannot focus well on things very close to their eyes, so they use bristly feathers around the beak to feel food.
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
An owl’s "ears" on top of its head are just feathers.
Ear tufts on owls like the great horned owl are for display and camouflage. The real ears are openings on the sides of the head.
Source: Great horned owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Great horned owls are one of the few animals that regularly eat skunks.
Like most birds, they have a poor sense of smell.
Source: Great horned owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
In ancient Greece, the little owl was a symbol of wisdom and of the goddess Athena.
Athenian silver coins carried an owl, which is why the bird became linked with wisdom in Western culture.
Source: Owl of Athena (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Harry Potter’s owl Hedwig is a snowy owl.
In the films she was played by several trained male snowy owls, which are whiter than the speckled females.
Source: Snowy owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Not all owls are nocturnal.
Burrowing owls and northern hawk owls are often active by day, and many owls hunt at dawn and dusk.
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
The classic "hoot" is mostly a territorial call.
Male and female tawny owls famously duet, one calling "ke-wick" and the other answering "hoo-hoo".
Source: Tawny owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Many owls are camouflaged to look like tree bark.
Mottled brown and grey feathers let owls roost in daylight without being seen.
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Small birds gang up on owls in daylight.
Called mobbing, crowds of songbirds dive and call at a roosting owl to drive it away.
Source: Mobbing (animal behavior) (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Owl eggs are almost always white.
Most owls nest in holes or hidden places, so their eggs do not need camouflage.
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Owl chicks hatch days apart.
Owls start incubating as soon as the first egg is laid, so siblings in one nest can be very different sizes.
Source: Owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Snowy owls can eat over 1,000 lemmings a year.
Lemmings are their main food in the Arctic, and snowy owls lay more eggs in years when lemmings are plentiful.
Source: Snowy owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
The northern spotted owl became a symbol of US forest protection.
Its listing as threatened in 1990 led to major limits on logging old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest.
Source: Northern spotted owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card
Barn owls can catch mice in complete darkness.
Experiments showed barn owls can locate prey by sound alone with remarkable accuracy.
Source: Barn owl (Wikipedia) · Fact card

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