9/18/2018 Owl Adaptations I Owl Research Institute

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OWL ADAPTATIONS

A GREAT GRAY IN PERFECT CAMOUFLAGE © KURT LINDSAY

SPECIES SUCCESS

An adaptation is a characteristic that helps give an animal or plant its best chance at survival in
the environment where it lives. Owls live in many different environments but have evolved in
order to stay at the top of the food chain. 

Below are descriptions of several important adaptations.

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  © CK NEALSON 

OWL TUFTS
Ears? Horns? No, the two bunches of feathers that look like ears are
called tufts. Tufts are specialized feathers that stand up from the heads
of many kinds of owls and have nothing to do with hearing.

Owls use tufts to help camouflage, or disguise, themselves. When the

tufts are raised, they resemble small twigs or branches. They help the
owls stay hidden from predators. Owls hide from songbirds, too,
because the little birds dive and make a racket when they spot an owl, a
behavior called mobbing. The commotion warns other songbirds that
an owl is in the area.

Owls without visible tufts are called round-headed owls. Some round-
headed owls raise their facial or “eyebrow” feathers to mimic tufts.

  © KURT LINDSAY  

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THE BETTER TO HEAR YOU WITH - OWL

HEARING 
Where are an owls’ ears anyway? If you looked deep under the head
feathers of an owl, you would discover that it has a slit on each side of
its skull. Each slit is a flap of skin, called an ear conch (pronounced
konk), which opens into a large ear canal, as shown above.

An owl opens and closes its ear conches by using muscles beneath the
rings of feathers around the owl’s face. The rings of feathers are called
the facial disc. The facial disc captures and funnels sound into the owl’s
ears, just as a TV satellite dish funnels broadcast signals into its antenna.

Some owls have ears located directly across from each other, in
symmetrical placement. Others have asymmetrical placement, where an
ear on one side of the head is located above the one on the other side
of the head, which increases their ability to locate sound on a vertical
axis. These owls use their uneven ears to judge exactly where sound is
coming from.

If an owl hears a mouse rustling, perhaps even below a blanket of snow,

the sound may reach one ear before it reaches the other ear. The owl
moves its head until the noise reaches both ears at the same time.
Once an owl has done this, it has pinpointed the location of the sound
and is ready to pounce – even if it has not seen its prey.

© DICK WALKER 

OWL EYES AND VISION

The magnificent eyes of owls come in three colors. Owl species that live
in North America have bright yellow or brown eyes. Some European
owls have orange eyes.

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A thin tissue, called the iris, covers the front of the eye and gives the
eyeball its color. At the center of the iris is the dark, round pupil. The
pupil controls how much light gets into the eye. In the bright glare of a
sunny day, the pupil shrinks to block out some of the light. At night, the
pupil expands to let in lots of light. An owl’s large pupils help it hunt in
the dark.

People once thought that owls were blind during the day. This is false –
the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, for example, is one of the many owl
species that hunt in broad daylight.

Some owl species have eyes larger than humans. An owl’s eyes contain
cells that are sensitive to light, just like human eyes do. Named after
their shapes, these cells are called rods and cones.

Rods help to see in dim light. Cones help to see color. An owl’s eyes are
packed with rods, so they see very well in the dark. Their eyes contain
very few cones, however, so what humans see in color looks mostly
black and white to an owl.

Binocular Vision

Some birds have an eye on each side of their head, like a robin, who
sees one scene with its right eye and a completely different scene with
its left.
People and owls, with eyes located on the front of their face, have what
is called binocular vision. What we see through one eye overlaps much
of what we see through the other eye. We see an object in front of us
with both eyes. Binocular vision helps owls judge how far away an
object is, what size it is, and how fast it is moving.

By moving our eyes from side to side, humans have 180 degrees field of
vision, of which 120 degrees is seen by both eyes. Owls have about 125
degrees field of vision, with up to 50 degrees seen with both eyes.

© DICK WALKER  

OWL EYES - NICTITATING MEMBRANES

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When humans blink, our eyelids close from above, like window shades,
briefly covering our eyes. An owls’ eyelids are not so simple.

An owl does have upper lids, like us, which cover the whole eye when it
blinks. The lower eyelids rise from below, covering the owl’s eyes when
it is asleep.

The third set of eyelids, called nictitating membranes, stretches from

the inside corner to the outside corner of each eye. These thin, cloudy
membranes close diagonally to cover the eyes and are believed to
protect, moisten, and clean the owl’s eyes.

© ASHOK KHOSLA 

EYES IN THE BACK OF THEIR HEAD?

Not really, although owls have the ability to look behind themselves.
While humans can look to the side just by shifting our eyes, an owl must
turn its entire head to look left or right. Each enormous eyeball is
locked in one position by bony plates called the sclerotic ring.

An owl would have to turn its whole head to the right and then to left to
take in normal human field of vision. Not a problem, however. Owls
have 14 neck bones – double the number humans have. These neck
bones, along with a special bone at the base of the skull, allow
movement. An owl can turn its head 270 degrees in both directions –
that is more than halfway around its body, but not quite a full turn
around. This gives owls the ability to swivel their head around to see
who might be sneaking up from behind.

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© RADD ICENOGGLE

PHANTOM FLYERS - OWL WINGS AND FLIGHT

Owls fly skillfully without much effort, because their wings are large
compared with the size and weight of their bodies. With large wings
and a light body, owls can carry heavy prey animals, fly among thick
vegetation and trees, and hover above open fields.

If you were to sit outside of a moonlit night and were very quiet, you
might see an owl fly past, but you probably wouldn’t hear it. Thanks to
their special feathers, many owls fly almost silently.

The outer edges of their forward wing feathers have a stiff fringe, like
the teeth of a comb. The rear wing feathers have a soft, hairlike fringe.
These fringed edges soften the flow of air as it moves over the wings.
The fine velvety surface of the flight feathers absorbs the noise the
feathers make as they slide over one another.

The ability to fly so quietly gives the owl a big advantage. It can hear
the scampering of its prey, but the prey will not likely hear the owl
coming in for the capture.

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FANCY FEATHERS

Many owls look bigger than they really are because they are heavily
covered with feathers from top to bottom.

In most species, female and male owls have similar feather colors and
markings, but the female is usually larger than the male. Adult owls lose
their feathers and grow new ones every year. But each owl stays the
same color throughout its life.

The colors of an owl’s feathers help it blend in with the natural

environment and, of course, keep it warm. Snowy Owls have white
feathers that help them hide in their snowy habitat. Flammulated Owls’
have dark feathers that help camouflage it when tucked up against a
tree. Grassland species have light brown feathers to match the tan
grasses and the brown earth.

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OWL CONCEALMENT POSTURE

Feather colors are not the only things that help camouflage owls. They
have other tricks to conceal themselves. Many stand tall and pull their
feathers in tightly, making the owls skinnier and harder to see. When
trying to conceal themselves, owls raise the whitish feathers
surrounding the bill. Tufted owls also raise their tufts, and round-
headed owls lift their facial and ‘eyebrow’ feathers.

When an owl tries to hide itself by changing its shape, it is in

concealment posture. In this posture, the owl’s rounded outline is
broken up and is less likely to be seen.

© RADD ICENOGGLE

OWL TOES AND TALONS

Owls have four toes on each foot. Two toes point forward, one toe
points backward, and the ‘reversible’ outer toe of each foot can point
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either forward or backward, as the owl wishes. Sometimes three of the
owl’s toes point forward, sometimes only two. With two toes pointing
forward and two back, known as a zygodactyl, the owl can perch
securely on a branch. When the owl clutches its prey, its toes spread so
the owl can get a firm grip. When the has three toes facing forward and
one backward, it is known as anisodactyl.

At the end of each toe is a long, sharp claw called a talon. The owl uses
its talons to snatch, squeeze, and kill prey animals. It also uses talons to
defend itself against predators, such as hawks, other owls, badgers, and
raccoons.

Many owls have feathered legs and feet for warmth. Snowy Owls, for
example, who live in the cold Arctic, have heavily feathered legs and
feet. Elf Owls, which live in warm, southern climates, have lightly
feathered legs.

OWL PELLET PACKING

Owls swallow their food whole or in large pieces, without chewing it. An
owl’s stomach doesn’t contain the digestive juices needed to break
down swallowed fur, feathers, teeth, beaks, bones, insect shells, or
other hard body parts. Inside the owl’s stomach, these hard pieces are
packed into tight, sausage-shaped clumps called pellets. Owls usually
spit up pellets onto the ground beneath their favorite roosts. Owls
vomit pellets ten to twenty hours after every meal.

Researchers study pellets to determine what each species of owl eats.

Using special tools, they gently tease open the pellets and pick them
apart. Sometimes they can re-create the prey animal’s skeleton with
pieces of bone, like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. The skeleton may
turn out to be an animal that was not known to live in the area where
the owl hunted, killed, and ate it. In this way, owl pellets help scientist
make important discoveries.

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© DANIEL J COX / NATURAL EXPOSURES.COM

FEMALE SNOWY OWL WITH EXPOSED BROOD PATCH

OWL BROODING
Female owls will generally lay one to fourteen roundish white eggs.
Females from different owl species lay different numbers of eggs. The
number also depends on how much food is available. For example, if
the nearby mouse populations in high, a female short-eared Owl might
lay ten eggs. If the mouse population is low, she might lay just four
eggs. 

Eggs are usually laid one to four days apart. The female owl sits on the
eggs to keep them warm. This is called incubation. During the
incubation period, the female loses the feathers on her belly in order to
transfer more body heat to the eggs. She presses the warm bare skin, or
brood patch, against the eggs. She lies on the nest in the incubation
position, with her head low and stomach down, keeping the eggs warm
all the time. 

Baby owls, called owlets or nestlings, hatch 22 to 40 days after the eggs
are laid. Because eggs are laid of different days, owlets break free from
their shells on different days. This is called asynchronous hatching. The
first owlets to hatch can be one to two weeks older than the last ones to
hatch.

When young owls hatch, they are covered with white, downy feathers
and their eyes are closed. Several days after hatching, their feathers
turn gray and their eyes open. When the female sits on a nest of
hatched chicks it is called brooding. For the first couple weeks of life
owlets are helpless; they are unable to see, fly, or thermoregulate
(maintain their own body temperature). Their mother broods them by
keeping them safely under and around her in the nest. 

Male owls hunt and bring food to the nest. Female owls tear small
pieces of meat off the prey animals and feed them to the nestlings.
Owls grow up quickly. In just three or four weeks, the owlets start to eat
prey animals whole and spit up pellets. 

Nestlings compete with each other for food. Because the older
nestlings are bigger and stronger than those born a few days later, they
often get most of the meat. If food is scarce, the younger owlets may
even starve to death. When the owlets are two to three weeks old, both
parents may leave the nest to hunt. The owlets cry out to their parents
for food; these are called food begging calls.

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TEXT SOURCE
The text for the Adaptations page comes from the children's book
Owls, Whoo are they? written by Kila Jarvis and Denver Holt
Illustrated by Leslie Leroux and Courtney Couch
In cooperation with the Owl Research Institute

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LEARN MORE ABOUT OWLS >>

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Thank you to:

Kurt Lindsay: https://kurtlindsay.smugmug.com/Nebulosa/i-7D8Wh9d
Daniel J Cox: http://naturalexposures.com
Radd Icenoggle: https://www.flickr.com/photos/radley521
Melissa Groo: https://www.melissagroo.com
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