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.