Owl facts, what is special about the Owls Night birds?

There are over 200 Owl species alive today these species are split into two families Barn owls and true or Typical owls. Barn owls have heart-shaped faces and only account for two dozen of the living owl species. Owls live on every continent besides Antarctica.

owl

They can be tracked down in a reach of habitats including oceanic islands where some species are endemic owls live in forests, deserts, tundras, grasslands, jungles, as well as human-made settlements that being said many people have never seen an owl in the wild.

Owl facts

Owls are primarily nocturnal or crepuscular creatures they spend most of the day hiding in log hollows like woodpecker holes or abandoned mammal burrows. The color of their plumage or feathers helps them blend in with their surroundings making them almost undetectable to both predator and prey. When in flight many owl species are nearly silent listen to the sound a diurnal bird’s wings make you’ll hear a distinct flapping many owls don’t make this sound.

Owl feathers are specifically designed with rough comb-like edges on the front and soft downy plumage on the back so that their wing beats are nearly imperceptible this gives them a huge advantage when sneaking up on prey equipped with excellent camouflage feathers designed to keep them stealthy and being literal night owls.

It’s no wonder these birds are tough to spot in the wild in fact you’re more likely to hear an owl than see one here are just a few of their calls. Some people believe that owls can see in the dark but this isn’t entirely true like cats owls can see well in dim light but they depend on their sense of hearing to locate prey in absolute darkness.

snowy owl

Some unique facts about Owls

Owl ears are unique because they’re not symmetrical one ear may be larger than the other and they may be located at different heights on the head. Owls eat animals their main diet is rodents but they also eat insects, reptiles, and even fish. Owl eyes are fixed in their head so that they don’t move around this is why owls turn their head to get a view of their surroundings they literally can’t move their eyes.

Again some people believe that owls can knock some people’s socks off a full 360 degrees however they’re limited to about 270 degrees in either direction. Owls eat their food whole and regurgitate anything indigestible such as fur, bones, and teeth in the form of a pellet. Female owls tend to be larger than their male counterparts. The smallest owls wingspans reach a foot in length the largest owls have more than six foot wingspans. Smaller owls and owl eggs are predated by larger predators like foxes or even bigger owls.

Owls are considered non-migratory though some species may move between habitats based on the season lowered owl populations are not caused by lack of food but lack of suitable nesting sites owls do not build their own nests and instead move into abandoned nests left behind by other birds such as hawks. They live a solitary life or they may share a hunting range with their partner.

To entice his girl a male owl may present food offerings before they mate owl eggs are spherical in shape and mothers will lay eggs over the course of a few days the eggs won’t all incubate at something similar time meaning the first to hatch will be the largest hatchling in the nest. Some owls can live well past 10 years of age though their lifespan largely depends on the species.

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