OWLS

There could be so many birds around my neighborhood, coz, I can hear lots of birds chirping during the early morning. Crow must be one of them. But since I live in a high raise building, crows hardly comes to my balcony. They either sit on the ground or on trees and I live above tree level. Then comes Pigeons. There are lots of them since they live in high raise buildings. I will write about pigeons or may be about a particular pigeon later, if I remember.

But there is a special bird which I really love in my neighborhood, one of the most fascinating birds…OWLS!!

I saw her only three or four times so far (they are solitary birds). It may be a he and not she. But I want to call it a she coz its so cute and beautiful.



She came in our utility balcony. And sat at the same place, all the time. I could not open the balcony door since it might fly away. So, I saw her through the glass. Since owls have very very sharp ears, it understood that I am here and looked at me. And it was a cute look and I wish I could cuddle that birdie.

First time I happened to see her when I heard some screech, at some wee hours may be 2 am or so. Anyway I got disturbed and woken up from my sleep so I decided to check out which bird or animal is making that sound. I peeped through the kitchen door opening to the balcony and there she is keenly looking at me. Actually I was bit irritated since I got woken up from sleep and it is very difficult for me to go back to sleep, but what a sight it was!. I could not help smiling at her. She was soooo sweet and cute. I even wished I could have her as my pet.

Yesterday also she visited me. Since she sits in the dark, its not very easy to make out her proper color. But I could see her white face and chest…it looked sooo fluffy and soft and somewhat like a cat.

Ok, now lets look at some of the details of this fascinating bird.




Owls belong to the family Strigiformes (further divided into typical and barn, which has heart shaped face) and they are seen in almost all places except Antarctica (and some parts of Greenland and some rare islands).



There are about 200 species of them. The size varies from 12 cm to 75 cm depending on the species. Usually they lay a minimum of three eggs and it goes to 12, depending on the type of owl. But they wont lay the eggs at a time, but with some gaps(1-3 days). When the mother bird sits to hatch the egg, the father bird fetches food (they eat meat and only meat – rat, rodent, insects, small birds etc). when the babies comes, father will be very busy hunting for food, for all of them. If the pray is small, they swallow it just like that and if its big, they tear it apart and eat. They are predators. They kill and eat. The undigested things like bones and all are regurgitated as pellets.




They have got four toes – two facing front and two facing back. They have exceptional abilities to hear even the smallest sounds (the best supplied to any birds). To add strength to this ammunition, they are supplied eyes with large retina and more rod cells, which boosts up the night vision (but they mostly depend on their ears than eyes at night).

Some owls have ear like thing called ‘ear tuft’ but they are not ears and the actual ears are behind the eyes which are located on the facial disc but covered with feathers.

Owls are part of human observation since 10000-15000 years. Many countries associate it with many things. The most common are ill omen and death !

In northern part of India, colloquially the name owl is used in synonym with idiot. But it is also considered as good omen (the white owl). And its is believed that different things will happen according to the number of times it hoots (eg. One for death and 9 for good fortune). Some pple consider it as representation of goddesses of wealth.

But in many parts of Africa, they believed it will bring illness to kids and they associated it with sorcery.

Australian aboriginals believed that they carry the souls of women (bat carries the souls of men) and hence considered sacred.

Take most of the countries – Egypt, Babylonia, Aztecs, Burma, China, France, Germany, Peru, New Zealand, Indonesia, Jamaica, Poland, Iran, Nigeria, Persia……. They all have something to say about this bird. Owls are part of mythology.

Now some interesting things about them:

Can owls turn its head in 360 degree? A full round? - No they can turn only three fourth. Technically speaking, they can turn their head 135 degrees on each side.

But why God gave this bird that ability to turn its head with such flexibility? – because its eyes are fixed in the eye sockets and it cant move it like we do. And moreover it has forward facing eyes.

Can owls see during day time? – Yes they can.

Do owls travel only at night? – No, some are very active during day time too (eg. Burrowing owl)

Is there anything special about its feathers? – Of course it has some special mechanism (they have fringe on the edge of flight feathers which works as a sort of silencer that reduces vibration) to reduce the sound while flapping their wings

Can they see anything very close to its eyes? – Nope they have long sight by birth

What kind of sound they make? – they make different kinds of sounds apart from screeching and hooting depending on the species and situation. It can hiss, scream, hoot, screech…..

Oh, I can write lots and lots about this wonderful bird....may be some other time..