Owls : Everything you need to know about these stealthy birds

You have most probably heard about this bird from a long time or we can say from your childhood. Remember those rhymes which we used to sing at small age, like "A for apple, B for ball, C for cat, D for dog..........." and so on. This is the " O for owl" one, about which we are going to talk about today. You have heard, watched them on TV or even got close to them in real life, but how much do you actually know about them? Do they actually are as they look like. From appearance and physical features to behavior and biological features, we will learn everything that one needs to know about these creatures. Let's go.

Strigiformes (owls)

General Info

Owls are medium-sized birds which can be easily recognized by their round and flat face white big eyes on them. These birds are mostly active during nights and tend to show very little active in the day. They are also known for their quite and stealthy flight techniques which help them to catch their prey efficiently. Owls are briefly classified in two types:

1) Strigidae (True/Typical owls)

2) Tytonidae (Barn owls)

A True owl (Left) and a Barn owl(Right)

Their are more than 225 species of owls distributed around the world in the which the Strigidae family (True/Typical owls) consists of around 190 of these species and the rest of them are included in the Tytonidae family (Barn owls). The total population of owls are not known although most of the species are on the rank of "least concerned" and "Data deficient", so yeah there are plenty of them.

As they are fairly common birds they are found in all parts of the world except the Antarctica continent. The lifespan of owls can be anywhere between 20 to 28 years in captivity and 8 to 10 years in the wild as they are much more safe in captivity. Also, True owls live longer as compared to Barn owls.

Physical Characteristics

The most notable physical features of an owl are it's big ass eyes and flat face and round skull. Their neck joints and muscles are quite flexible providing with a 270 degree vision. They can be found in number of different fur colors like brown, gray-brown, whitish-gray, full white, light green, brownish red, black etc.

Their weight and size can vary from 0.088 to 8.81 pounds (0.041 to 4 Kg ) and 4.72 to 27.95 inches (0.12 to 0.71 meters) respectively. depending upon the species. The females owls are slightly bigger then males owls. Also, they have a wingspan of 0.886 to 5 feet (0.27 to 1.542 meters/10.632 to 60 inches), again, depending upon the specie.

Behavior and lifestyle

All kinds of owls are moderately aggressive and do not usually attack humans. Instead they show the tendency of escaping when disturbed or spooked. Most of the owls switch their body posture and take a defensive stance if they feel that they are in danger. But owls can also attack humans if they feel overly threatened. So you better don't annoy them too much just because they look small and cute, they might whoop your ass and chase you down.

As mentioned earlier, they are hunt at night and are excellent predators. They have a good vision, hearing and an impressive ability to fly silently without making much noise. As the males are slightly smaller than the females, they are more agile and are shows more precision while hunting, as a result they are found to hunt frequently while females on the other doesn't require much food (except during the gestation period).

 

As for their food, They prey on small mouses, rats, rodents, small birds ,insects, chickens, small snakes and small/ medium sized fishes (as all of the owls are carnivores). They hunt quite efficiently as they have the ability to analyse the environment in 3D and are also capable of determining distances between the objects and themselves in a very accurate and precise manner. 

They mostly live a solitary life, means they prefer to live alone rather than in groups. They may or may not migrate from a region depending on their current conditions.

Biological and special features

Sexual Dimorphism 

They show the factor of differences in  their internal and external features with respect to their corresponding genders. Like Females are larger and heavier as compared to male owls hence affecting body movements, agility and food consumption rate between them.

Vision, hearing and flight

Owls have binocular vision system, means they can utilize of their eyes to produce a much more clear image of their surroundings by re-constructing it in to 3-D.

They have asymmetrical ears on the side of their heads which can be both internal or external ears. Either way, they have a excellent sense of hearing which mostly helps them to get the location of their prey or drive their attention to an approaching danger.

As for their flight, they fly silently and do not produce turbulence as most other birds do. It is because their wings are of a broad size which helps them to glide and float rather than flapping much in the air.

Beak and curved claws (Talons)

Owls have a curved and downwards facing scissor like beaks which they use to tear the flesh of their prey. Their talons are also curved as well as wide which they use to grab the prey from above. The exert a lot of force on they, enough force to crush the skull. Even the smaller species of owls exerts a pressure of 300 to 725 psi (2 to 5 Newtons) while the bigger owls have a release force of nearly 18855 psi (130 Newtons).

Camouflage and tracking

The body color native to the region of a certain owl will surely give it a upper hand as they blends in to the environment and hide from their prey's line of site. Also by using this camouflage, they constantly track their target without showing their presence and when they finally get in the range they shock their prey with a surprise attack.

Reproduction

At the age of  1 year most of the owls reach sexual maturity. The breeding season for most of the species of owls start from the month of March and lasts till the end of August or early September. During these time male and female both are active and show and get each others attention by making certain noises and sounds. The female owls usually don't mate with the same male again and tends to migrate in search of news regions or areas. The barn owls generally mate only one time in a year.

The female lays 1 to 10 eggs at a time depending upon their type. The gestation period is of around 30 to 32 days. The eggs are not hatched all at once. They are hatched in every 2 or 3 days. After 2 to 3 months after birth, the young owls gain a big size and become capable enough to fly.

Facts and summary

• Owls are small/medium sized carnivore birds.

• Their are more than 225 species of owls.

• They have big ass eyes and an excellent vision and hearing sense.

• Their eye balls are not exactly eye balls, instead, they are in the shape of a tube.

• Owls are the only birds that can see the color Blue.

• They have a farsighted vision, they cannot focus on the objects near to them.

• They have 3 eyelids to cover their eyes, the first one is the normal lid, the second one is the upper lid which they use while blinking and the third one is the lower lid which they use while sleeping.

• They have a 110 degrees of viewing angle only by eyes and can cover up to 270 degrees of viewing angle with the help of their flexible neck.

• Female owls are bigger and heavier than male owls.

• Birds threatened or scared by the owls often gang up in groups and attacks the owls or force them to leave the area. Although owls don't usually pay attention to all these attacks.

• They are silent predators and do not make much noise while hunting.

• The design of  Stealth Bomber planes and air crafts are inspired by owls.

• A group of owls is called a "Parliament".

• Among their babies, the owls feeds the strongest and biggest one first even if the food is scarce.
• Some species of owls (for example the snowy owl) eats other owls as well.

• The biggest owl ever recorded is almost bigger than the size of a new born baby (Human baby).

• They are often used as pest control by farmers as they eat up to 100 mice per year.

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