
Many
people think owls look frightening. Owls are really actually very beautiful. An
owls eyes face straight ahead instead of facing the side, like other birds.
Owls have very large eyes to help them fly at night. Owls have round faces covered in soft, fluffy, feathers.
Some owls have white feathers on their faces. It helps if an owl has a pie
shaped face. Owls have ears that are hidden beneath their feathers. Some owls
have white feathers with brown spots. Owls have feathers and wings. Owl chicks
are born with soft, fluffy feathers. Owls have sharp talons.
Other Interesting Owl
Facts
OwlÕs
talons are so sharp that an owl could pounce onto an ice cube and the ice cube
would stick to the talons. An owl can hear a beetle in the grass up to 100 feet
away. Most owls are nocturnal. It would take 60 elf owls to weigh as much as a
snowy owl. Owls turn their head all the way around to see whatÕs behind it. The
smallest owl in the world is the elf owl. Owls are birds. An owl can hear very
well in fact, an owl can hear better than it can see. If your eyes were the
same size as an owlÕ s, they would be the size as a tennis ball. Owls cannot
move their eyes from side to side, and they have to move their whole head
instead.
An
owl can swallow a lizard whole. Owls can shriek and sing. Owls hunt at night.
Owls lay eggs and baby owls come out of the eggs. Many owls store extra food
during the nesting season to help them feed their hungry chicks. In a really
good year, a female snowy owl can lay as many as 14 owl eggs. Sometimes snowy
owl will fly as far as south Texas. Once two owls mate, they prepare to raise a
family. To raise a family they need to find a nest. An owl can fly through
trees very quietly. Owls will memorize the location and pattern of the trees in
the forest that they live in.
What and How Owls Eat
Owls
eat lizards and other things. Owls use their sharp hearing and eyesight to hunt
for their food. Owls can focus their eyes on their food very quickly. Owls use
their hearing to find food. Owls grab food with their talons. Most owls hunt
and move around in darkness. Owls like to eat rodents. Most owls eat insects,
other birds, and snakes. Bigger kinds of owls eat squirrels and rabbits.
Chapter 5
Where Owls Live
Most of the small and medium sized owls make their
nests in hollow branches, in tree trunks, or in old woodpecker holes. There are
hidden from predators and sheltered from really bad weather. Snowy owls are
mainly found in the Arctic. Lots of owls live in the United States. Owls find
their homes in many places like caves, tree holes, trunks, bushes and forests.
Owls like to live in dark places. Owls in the desert live in cactuses and get
water from them. They sometimes live in rain forests, tree trunks, and holes.
Some owls live on the very tops of trees. Some owls live in zoos. And some owls
live in the same place all year.