- Have large eyes located on the front of their faces allowing them
to have binocular vision.
- Have eyes that are ten times as light-sensitive as human eyes.
- Are short-sighted so they can hunt near the ground.
- Have such large eyes that there is little room for eye muscles in
their skulls.
- Turn their heads as much as 270 degrees to follow a moving object.
- Have the most highly developed sense of hearing of all birds
- Have one ear that is lower than the other so that the owl can pinpoint
location.
- Swallow their prey whole and then cough up a hard, round"pellet"
of bones and fur.
- Are silent in flight because of their broad wings and widely spaced
feathers.
- owls are blind in daylight
- the feather tufts on an owl's head are its ears
- They cannot move their eyes from side to side but have extremely flexible
necks and can move their heads rather quickly - thus the illusion of
a complete turn.
- Owls are predators - they catch, kill and eat other animals in order
to survive. This predation is neither cruel nor wasteful and has been
going on for millions of years.
- .Although some owl species are diurnal (active by day), most owls
hunt at night and are seldom observed by humans. Because of this nocturnal
(nighttime) existence, they are little known and often misunderstood,
even though some owls live their entire lives in close proximity to
people.
- Hunting at night, owls use their extraordinary vision and excellent
hearing to locate their prey.
- (The owl's digestive system assimilates the nutritious portions of
the prey; the undigested parts, such as hair, bones, claws, teeth, etc.,
are regurgitated in the form of pellets. These pellets, found at roosting
sites, can be examined to determine the owl's diet.
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