There is something mysterious about owls. Their silent flight, intense gaze, and immobility lend a dignity not found in many other birds. Let’s take a closer look at some of the features that make owls so remarkable.

Flight Skills

If a Canada Goose flies overhead, you can clearly hear its wings flapping. But that’s not the case with owls, particularly those that hunt at night. Their large wings (Snowy Owls have a wingspan of 4-5 feet) enable them to fly as slowly as 2 miles per hour with little flapping. A comb-like fringe on the wing feathers creates smaller streams of air, helping to muffle the sound of the air rushing over their wings. Silent flight means that their prey don’t hear them coming and the owls’ hearing isn’t masked by the sound of their own wings.

Great Horned Owls have short, wide wings that enable them to manoeuvre between trees in the forest. Burrowing Owls can fly, but they spend most of their time on the ground where they hunt for insects, voles, and other small mammals.

Superior Vision & Hearing

Owls are outstanding hunters relying on both their eyes and ears to spot their prey.

The circle of feathers surrounding many owls’ faces acts like a satellite dish, helping to collect the sound waves and channel them to their ears. In addition, their ears are often located at different heights on their head helping them to pinpoint where a sound originates. Great Gray Owls can detect prey under 2 feet of snow thanks to their large facial disc.

Owls’ eyes function like a pair of binoculars. They are cylindrical and immobile, which increases depth perception and helps them to focus on their prey. They can swivel their heads up to 270 degrees, giving them an amazing opportunity to see in all directions while remaining almost motionless. Northern Hawk Owls hunt during the day, relying on their eyesight more than their hearing, pouncing on their prey from on high like a hawk.

Hunting Skills

Not all owls hunt by night. Others hunt during the day or at dusk, while many are active both day and night. Birds that usually hunt at night, such as Great Horned Owls, are often after rodents, which are more active at night.

Snowy Owls prefer treeless, wide-open spaces where they hunt both day and night, perhaps because they've adapted to almost day-long sunlight during the Arctic summer and day-long darkness in the winter. They breed in the northern Arctic but can be found further south in winter, flying over the fields or perched on a fence post or hay bale as they scan the area for small animal prey. Some years large numbers will appear in search of food.

Owls use their feet to grab their prey. The bones are shorter and stronger than in other birds, helping them to withstand the shock when they make contact with their victim. The bottom of their feet has a rough, knobbly surface that improves their grip and helps them to hang on to the animal they have captured. Like other raptors, owls have 3 toes facing forward and one facing back. But owls can rotate one of their forward-facing toes to the back, giving them a better, more even grip on their prey as it struggles to escape.

Great Horned Owls are ferocious predators with prey ranging from mammals larger than themselves to small insects, mice, and frogs. They use their large, strong talons to break the spine of large prey.

Camouflage

Owls’ mottled feathers and ability to remain completely still can make them very hard to spot. Long-eared Owls’ dark mottled feathers and rusty-orange facial disc provide excellent camouflage when roosting during the day in thick stands of trees. If disturbed on their nest, they raise their ear tufts and compress their feathers to disguise themselves as a broken branch.

Adaptability

Owls rarely make their own nest. Instead, they borrow and make use of other creatures’ homes. Great Horned Owls and Long-eared Owls take advantage of stick nests constructed by other birds such as crows, ravens, or hawks. Boreal Owls lay up to 19 eggs in tree cavities, such as those created by woodpeckers. Burrowing Owls use the abandoned burrows of prairie dogs and ground squirrels.

Short-eared Owls are unusual as they construct their own nest, a hollow in the ground lined with grass and feathers. The females are reluctant to leave the nest when they are breeding. If they must, they defecate on the eggs, presumably hoping that the stink will deter predators and mask the smell of the nest.

Additional Resources

What An Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds, Jennifer Ackerman

The Owl Handbook: Investigating the Lives, Habits, and Importance of These Enigmatic Birds, John Shewey (January 2025)

Alfie and Me, Carl Safina

Nature Companion, a free app/website introducing many of the plants and animals found in Canada's four western provinces [EcoFriendly West]

Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/apmckinlay/49125763001

EcoFriendly West informs and encourages initiatives that support Western Canada’s natural environment through its online publication and the Nature Companion website/app. Like us on Facebook, follow us on BlueSky, X, and Mastodon, or subscribe by email.