There are few birds that are more interesting than the owl. It is also one of the most skilled bird predators around
Contrary to most birds, the owl has eyes in the front of its head instead of on the sides, marking it as a predator. Having eyes in the front lets them look down on and target their prey with amazing accuracy. Not only that, but owls have superior night vision which gives them an edge over many other predators when hunting at night. However, although impressive, their eyes are not perfect.
For one, owls cannot see in color. Everything is black and white and shades of gray to them. Also, owls eyes are fixed in their head. So, in order to see from side to side, they have to rotate their head. Fortunately, they can do this better than any other bird. They can rotate their heads as much as three quarters of a turn which allows them to see practically all around them without moving. In addition, each of their eyes move independently. This gives them the ability to simultaneously monitor and focus on two items of interest at once.
The hearing of the owl is just about as amazing as it's eyes. Much like a bat, it can pretty much pinpoint the location of prey purely by sound. Like a bat, owls have oversized ears that are shaped almost perfectly to enable them to pick up sounds. And, while not as sophisticated as that of a bat, their ears have the ability to let them locate prey in pitch black. This gives them the extraordinary ability to pinpoint prey purely by sound, confirm the prey with their eyes, and silently attack before the prey even knows that it is being hunted.
The same as with their sight, however, owls do have a flaw in their hearing abilities. The range of their hearing is more narrow than that of many other birds. Owls cannot hear sounds below seventy cycles per second. This is like an auditory blind spot for them.
One of the main thing that owls are famous for is their impressive stealth hunting abilities. They primarily dine on tiny mammals, from time to time other birds, and field mice and other rodents. Its wings are shaped in such a way that they are dampened in flight. This makes owls remarkably silent when they attack. Prey often relies, to an extent, on sound to give them warning of an impending attack. Because of its stealth flight capabilities, however, the owl's prey often doesn't even hear the attack coming.
Unless you are a night person, the odds of your actually seeing an owl in action is rare, as they are mostly night creatures. They mostly sleep during the day. But they truly are one of the most interesting birds to observe when in action.
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