The Wonderful World of Owls

The perch-and-pounce technique kind of reminds me of when flycatchers wait for an insect to fly by before they quickly dart towards and grab their prey. However owls can do this in complete darkness using only their hearing.

The wings of a robin are more slender and pointed , the owls have rounded powerful wings and the feathers up close on the owl are soft not like the robins stiff feathers. Owls are powerful hunters.  The food selection of robins is different then some owls, they eat small insects. Robins build their nests but owls are cavity nesters often using a banded nests.

Owls perform all the same activities as other birds (raising young, finding food, and claiming territories, to name a few).  However, their ways of doing so are tailored to their specific niche--nocturnal predation. I see many similarities between owls' lives and those of other birds of prey.  They catch live food, engage in strenuous hours of hunting, and teach their young to hunt as well.  Also, they share many of the same structural design features (talons, strong beak, and powerful wings). However, an obvious difference between owls and these other birds is their nocturnal nature.  Owls are specially designed to live in the dark, and they do so excellently!

It was interesting that many owls do not travel widely, and can find their food  - in many cases -  without migrating far away.   It was also interesting to learn that they are more solitary, and often don't interact much -  even when they are together. I really enjoyed the resource about the Snowy Owl Baltimore.  He is a migrator, and it was rather humorous to follow the path of some of his southern (south of the Arctic that is) visits.  What a wide variety of locations he traveled.  A very versatile bird!

I hadn't ever really considered before what loners owls are. It occurs to me that humans solving a problem can be categorized according to owl hunting behavior: sit and watch or go after it!

I was surprised that owls leave the nest before they can fly; the whole concept of branching. It was interesting to watch that one owl climb the tree!

I found the pouncing, preying practise and the branching incredible.  Owls do seem like loners and very interesting how they don't make their own nests and how their heads don't actually move 360 degrees - a great illusion!!

The Owl Family, seems to be more private, and almost scared/paranoid, of beholders. One thing I want to do, is get a picture of a raptor, that seems easier to photo, than Owls and Hawks/Eagles. A Vulture cleaning a carcass. I do not think I will ever see an Owl, that will stay still. I have seen them perch, and fly away. And like an Eagle, or Hawk, they do not seem to like being in the eye of a beholder.   What is it about some birds, that they do not get scared away. I have seen Swans, right next to me, and other Swans have eaten,out of a persons hand, even in the wild. An Owl is scared, like a smaller bird. And they are never near people. Even skittish small birds, eat near people, and will eat out of a persons' hand, if food is presented. Why is such a strong bird, so skittish ?   And just in general, what makes a bird scared, or not, of people ? Why can a Swan, be within a  few feet of you ? And a Goose too. And other birds be completely scared ? Owls also seem to have more personality to them. The pics I have seen, almost show human moods to them. Not blank, nor plain. Like they are wearing a fear, and a care, on their sleeve. Not a plain bird.

Owls definitely work alone....but that is similar to most raptors. It is also interesting how they are able to find their prey even in the winter time, unlike some song birds that have to travel in order to continue to feed. Do owls greatly change any of their diets for the winter time? I know some songbirds like the Eastern Bluebird change their diets for the winter months. I was very lucky this weekend to see a Northern Saw Whet Owl that likes to come to the Cleveland Lakefront Nature Preserve but other than that I have only see Barred Owls. Owls are so much harder to find...not only because of their nighttime lifestyle but also when we can see them during the daytime, their feathers SO greatly camouflage them! Plus they are normally so still as they are sleeping. Looking forward songbirds, you are always drawn to the movement of them. 

What I found interesting and did not know was the "Branching" behavior of owls. Although I knew birds will eventually leave the nest they hatched in, falling out of the nest may be a sure way to be entering the "food chain" as a prey. Watching the video of owls climbing back up a tree and getting themselves to safety is not something all bird species may be able to do. Strong legs and claws are sure helpful even at such young age.

I've been participating in Cornell's Feeder Watch and have seen a variety of different birds, unfortunately no owls. The birds range from my common, resident birds (they are here all year round, Blue Jays and Northern Cardinals) to wintering birds, such as Pine Siskins and American Goldfinches. All of these birds are different from owls because they are here feeding during the day, whereas owls are nocturnal; they are mostly seed eating birds (the wrens and some others also like spiders and bugs); and they are not predatory, although the Pine Siskins can be bullies when it comes to feeders. I love the differences in feathers! There are some owls whose wings have feathers that don't make any sound as they sweep towards their prey, while others such as the Snowy Owl that have wings needed for strength instead of stealth. Birds are very diverse!

Owls, Falcons, and Hawks have pretty similar life styles but, owls hunt in the dark. Owls are different from most birds because they live by themselves or with a mate. I also think it's cool because they take over other birds' nests or live in cavities.

I learnt alot about how owls hunt at night and their silent flight.  Also how they can turn their head around to see to the back. The owls are solitary and only get together to mate.  The male hunts mice and other small mammals to feed the chicks while the female guards the nest.   The ears are hidden by the side of the face.  I learnt all about the different kinds of owls from all over the world and their migrating patterns.  I was on a nature walk in toronto and saw a Norther see-whet owl in the fir trees.  It was well hidden inside the fir trees sleeping.  It was very calm and just looked at us with one eye very magical.

Learning about the lifestyles of owls I am struck by the differences in nest building between most owls and the nest building practices of Bald Eagles, for example. There is a mating pair of Bald Eagles in Big Bear CA that has a 24/7 nest cam. They spend weeks and months building and rebuilding their nest, bringing in branches and sticks and rearranging them constantly. The Bald Eagle mating pairs are quite social and spend a lot of time together.

What I have noticed about owls in general is that they are very "still."   Most birds I know tend to move more when they are perched.   I wondered if this is a raptor characteristics, but other raptors seem to move more than owls.   This may make them look "wiser" or even "creepier " when their heads suddenly turn? I think owls are the birds whose calls are most used intentionally in the movies.  Rarely do calls and images match.  This seems to show owls, along with ravens, have been placed uniquely as objects onto which humans project their thoughts and emotions; thus seen as evil, creepy, and fascinating.   Little owl was associated with Greek goddess Athena.

Owls appear to be very solitary.  They get together to mate and have young, but the male does a lot of the hunting and the female stays on the nest and feeds the young.  When I went to count owls at Mount Vernon (there are Screech Owls near the parking lot, Barred Owls at the Tomb, and Great Horned Owls in the plastic Verizon tree), we began our soundings with those of the smaller owls because large owls eat smaller owls and we didn't want to scare the Screech Owls away.  We did not spot Screech Owls that night.  But when we went up to the Verizon tree which is the tallest on the property, the male Great Horned Owl called out.  He flew down first, made a loud hooting sound, then flew up.  The female made a softer hooting sound that sounded farther away.  Owls hunt many kinds of prey in a solitary manner and at night.  Burrowing Owls will form loose colonies and young owls may hang out with with each other before taking off on their own.  When our dog found Screech Owls in our local park (don't worry, I always leash him and he is a terrier and prefers rodents so he was curious as to why he found) I noticed the young had jumped the nest and the adults were up in the tree watching over them .  They young then jumped up other trees to get back to the nest. Within a day or two they had fledged and left the nest.  Owls will get mobbed by crows.  On the Audubon Winter Bird Count at Fort Belvoir we noticed mob action and spotted a Great Horned Owl. In Senegal, Owls are considered to be sorcerers and are regarded at a distance.  I find owls in movies, books, and art work.  Once at the National Gallery of Art East Wing there was a massive pairing done during the Edo period and owls were included.  Owls are fascinating and we love them in our family.

I was a steward for western purple martin colonies in the Pacific Northwest for many years, so it has been interesting to compare the information about owls’ life styles in this course with what I observed for purple martins. Purple martins are long-distance, inter-hemispheric migrants, which is a seasonal behavior for only a few owl species. Like owls, martins are cavity nesters, but they prefer colonial nesting conditions, whereas owls seem to be territorial with respect to nest sites (and hunting grounds?). Purple martins are exclusively insectivorous and feed on the wing, so their diet is limited compared to that of many owls, even the small owls that eat mostly insects and invertebrates. As an interesting aside:  During my time as a purple martin steward I was aware of two instances of “colony collapse” (sudden loss of adult birds & subsequent death of their chicks by starvation); at least one of those colony losses was documented to be caused by the nocturnal raids of an owl.