Top Quotes: “The Hidden Life of Owls” — Leigh Calves

“Beliefs, opinions, and superstitions about owls vary widely from culture to culture even today. In South Africa, owls are associated with witchcraft and bad luck; to call someone there an “owl” is the highest insult. In Jamaican folk tradition, if an owl flies by your house it means death. But in Mongolia, owls are powerful spirits that keep away bad luck.”

“For more than sixty-seven million years, owls have roamed the earth, flying, hunting, and raising their families in the dark. As the taxonomic order Strigiformes, owls split from the evolutionary branch of the raptors and evolved to not only survive in but thrive in nearly every habitat on the planet, from extreme polar regions to high desert steppe and from deep primeval forests to the farms and neighborhoods associated with human civilization. Owls are divided into two families: Tytonidae, barn owls, the oldest ow Species with a heart-shaped face, and Strigidae, typical or true owls, with a round face.

To take advantage of their nighttime niche, these charismatic megafauna of the avian world have developed several unique adaptations common to all owls to aid in living after dark. These same characteristics are what make owls distinct from other birds and make them one of the most attractive species of birds to us humans.

Over the millennia, owls evolved tubular eyes, which face forward and are immovable, and are the reason owls developed the ability to turn their heads 270 degrees. Owl eyes have more black-and-white detecting rods than color cones, allowing them to see in the dark. Their large round yellow eyes, with dark pupils wide enough to let in small amounts of light in darkness, are one of the first things we notice about them. In the human world, large eyes with wide pupils hold a certain attraction both for the viewer and the viewed. Studies show that a person’s pupils dilate in the presence of someone they are attracted to. Advertisers dilate the eyes of models in photographs to make their products more attractive by default. Nature, it seems, has prepared us biologically to be attracted to owls by giving them such big eyes.

The face of an owl is another highly specialized feature that holds a unique appeal for us. The facial feathers of an owl form a satellite-like dish capable of funneling sound to the owl’s ears, which are asymmetrically placed, one higher than the other, on either side of its head. This adaptation helps owls precisely pinpoint prey in three dimensions, making for a swift, efficient strike. Baby owls often seen bobbing and turning their heads in cute videos on the Internet are actually learning to use their hearing. The human brain is hardwired to recognize faces.”

“Another common owl characteristic, zygodactyl talons with a twist — two toes on each foot pointing backward, one forward, and a fourth that can move either way provides owls with an advantageous structure for forceful grasping and squeezing of prey. With their talons resembling opposable thumbs, owls be come efficient, resilient, and adaptable, — traits we humans often admire.

The stealthy, silent flight of owls comes from primary flight feathers that have evolved serrated comb-like structures along the leading edge and soft fuzz along the top to break up noisy turbulence. The owl’s silent flight has been studied by both the aeronautics industry and the US military.”

“Not all owls are nocturnal.”

“Her lopsided ears allow her to pinpoint her prey both vertically and horizontally, allowing a swift, efficient strike from above.”

“She then tears her food into large pieces with her strong beak or swallows it whole. Either way, she eats it headfirst — as all owls do — for the protein contained in the brain. The indigestible bits, like the skeleton, teeth, and fur, are caught in her gizzard and form a “pellet” to be regurgitated about six hours later.”

“Bird banding, the practice of placing a numbered silver band around a bird’s leg, began somewhat accidentally in 1595 when one of King Henry IV’s Peregrine Falcons, which had a metal ring around its leg, went missing while hunting in France. The falcon was found the next day in Malta, some thirteen hundred miles away. To get that far in twenty-four hours, the Peregrine Falcon would have had to average fifty-four miles per hour non-stop. After that discovery, “ringing,” as bird banding is called in Europe, then became a popular curiosity of the time.”

“In the twenty-first century, technological advances — in radio telemetry, tracking the location of birds with radio signals; geo-locators, measuring sunlight; and solar-powered mobile tracking systems, like GPS and GMS, using satellites and cell towers — have led to the development of tags and transmitters that are now small and light enough to place on the smallest of owls.

Scientists now have unprecedented access to owls and other birds through minute-by-minute transmissions, revealing some amazing behavior never before witnessed. Today, with the use of these new technologies, we are poised on the edge of the next big breakthroughs in avian biology, just like the curious renaissance birders once were when they made their first big discoveries with the help of slim silver leg bands.”

“With the female owl sitting on the nest continuously for the entire twenty-six- to twenty-nine-day incubation period, the male dutifully brings food to his nest-bound mate in a family strategy reminiscent of one of our own human approaches.”

“While for most other birds the male is larger than the female, for most owl species, including the Saw-whet Owl, the female is larger than the male. There are several theories to explain this evolutionary trait, known as reversed sexual size dimorphism. One is that the size difference may reduce competition for prey between males and females. As the smaller of the two, the male may be a faster, more agile hunter, a trait that would serve him well in providing food for his hungry mate and chicks. Another theory is that the female may need to be larger to carry more weight in preparation for her long period of incubation. Lastly, a larger female may be better able to defend her nest from would-be predators.”

“Owls lose only a few primary and secondary feathers each year, so they are never rendered flightless, as some birds are during their molt. Some owls of different ages have different molt patterns that will show as a fluorescent pink.”

““They actually sound quieter and farther away when they’re coming in to investigate. They fool you into thinking they’re far away so they can sneak up on the intruder,” he explained about this tiny ventriloquistic owl.”

“Today, according to GLOW, there are 225 owl species with 417 subspecies worldwide, with more being discovered and reclassified every year after much scientific debate.”

“Barred Owls, recent arrivals to the Pacific Northwest, as well as Northern Goshawks and Cooper’s Hawks, are known to prey on the smaller Flammulated Owls.”

“The Snowy Owl is one creature that can survive the spectral ends of planet Earth. Special adaptations prepare this owl for life in the Arctic, hunting and surviving in months of darkness, snow, and ice. For all owls, hunting in near-total darkness is nothing special. Their long, tubular eyes are power-packed with black-and-white nerve cells, called “rods,” and a tapetum lucidum — the same mirror-like structure that causes cat or deer eyes to shine in the dark. This special layer of tissue reflects light back to the rods a second time, to the point that the owls’ nighttime world is brightened to what we would think of as cloudy daylight conditions.”

“The number of eggs Snowy females lay each year is also based on the lemming population. In a boom year for lemmings, each Snowy Owl female may lay eight to eleven eggs. In an average year, she may produce only two to four eggs. The owls make a calculated guess in the spring based on the lemming population at the moment, which may not hold through the summer. If the snow melts too quickly or if it rains too much in the spring, lemmings move to higher ground, making it look to Snowy Owls as if there are more lemmings than there really are. That’s one reason why nests fail altogether in some years.”

“The Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) is the heaviest of North American owls, weighing in at four to six pounds, as much as two pounds heavier than the owl closest in size, its cousin the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus). Most of this weight comes from thick fur-like feathers that cover everything from the Snowy’s feet to its face to the tip of its black beak. This heavy down jacket allows it to maintain its internal body temperature of 95°F to 104°F, even with an air temperature of -58°F. Below that point, they rely on other biological factors, such as stored fat reserves and behavioral mechanisms, like roosting out of the wind and more frequent hunting and feeding, to provide the energy necessary to help keep them warm, even when it’s -80°F.

As an adaptation to ever-changing prey availability, Snowy Owls are nomadic. They circle the North Pole in the northern latitudes, stitching together artificial human boundaries.”

“Over the two years #57 was tracked, she traveled nearly five thousand miles, most likely nested three consecutive years (including the year she was tagged) thousands of miles apart, and crossed three international borders. The other three owls tagged in the study showed similar wide-ranging movements. These movements are not considered migratory in nature, however, because the owls don’t return to the same place each year, nor do all the owls go to the same place. So while Fuller, Holt, and Schueck’s study does shed some light on where Snowy Owls go, and while it seems that these wide wanderings must almost certainly be at least partly food-related, scientists still do not know exactly why Snowy Owls go where they go.”

“Snowy Owls seem to get the solo travel bug early, leaving the nest for far-off destinations on their own. From one nest on Victoria Island between the Arctic coast of Canada’s Northwest Territories and Nunavut, three Snowy Owl chicks each chose a different path, each following its own inner nomad. One flew west to the east coast of Russia, another went south to Hudson Bay, and one headed to southeastern Ontario, bordering New York and New England.

In their first winter, chicks often head south, where hunting may be easier for first-year owls. In boom years, also known as “irruption years,” Snowy Owls begin to appear as if by magic in places they aren’t usually seen.”

“”It’s unbelievable,” Holt continued. “They are being seen from Boston, to the Great Lakes, the Ohio River Valley, Kansas, Vancouver and Seattle.” On eBird, an online birding website jointly run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, birders reported real-time Snowy sightings as far south as Arkansas and Texas. Even Honolulu, Hawaii, had one Snowy Owl, the first ever recorded in that state.”

“Snowy Owls often choose airports as landing sites in unfamiliar territory, preferring wide-open flat spaces reminiscent of arctic tundra rather than the deciduous and fir forests of the Lower 48.”

“There are only two ways into or out of Barrow, either by plane or by boat, and that is for only part of the year. Food we take for granted, like milk, is flown in from Anchorage or barged in through the Bering Strait; in Barrow, milk costs as much as twenty dollars a gallon.”

“The yellow-gray tundra grasses grew beside tufts of white cotton grass that looked like miniature Truffula Trees, the trees created by Dr. Seuss for The Lorax.”

“As male Snowies age, their feathers turn whiter. It would seem that they turn white for camouflage, but in the summer against a tan tundra, they stand out like a beacon in the night. Some scientists think that Snowy Owls may be able to see ultraviolet light and that their white feathers are a signal only other Snowy Owls can interpret.”

“Once Spotted Owls choose a territory, unless some major event occurs, such as a fire or clear-cutting or the death of a mate, they tend to stay on the same land for the rest of their lives. I once heard a biologist telling the story of a pair of Spotted Owls sitting in the last remaining tree in the middle of a clear-cut, as if wondering what had happened to their neighborhood.

In the winter months, they do not migrate as some owls are known to do. Instead, they expand their home range as food resources are depleted, while their core habitat remains the same.”

“Spotted Owls rely most heavily on their favorite prey, the nocturnal northern flying squirrel. Flying squirrels are rather small as far as squirrels go, measuring only about ten inches from the tip of their long whiskered noses to the tip of their flat tails — just the right size for owl prey. With the use of their flat tails as rudders and the skin flaps that hang along their sides between their front and hind legs, these cinnamon-colored squirrels can soar between trees for up to 150 feet or more, looking much like wingsuit flyers leaping from mountain ledges.

Flying squirrels live solely in old-growth forests, eating false truffles, a type of fungus that grows only in undisturbed decaying woody debris on the old-growth forest floor.”

“Jamie, who had been following the increasing population of Barred Owls on the island, was once attacked by a male Barred Owl guarding his territory near Gazzam Lake. Signs warning of owl attacks began showing up on information boards at park entrances around the island.”

“In the Pacific Northwest, there are four hundred species of darkling beetles for Burrowing Owls to feed on. From time to time, they also enjoy a tasty red Jerusalem cricket, june bugs, large bees, deer mice, kangaroo rats, and small gopher snakes, running as much as flying to catch their meals.”

“David told the story of one female Burrowing Owl who, under severe conditions, lost all eight of her chicks. Whether she killed them herself or they were already dead from starvation is unclear. Yet the mother, in her desperate will to survive, ate her own chicks, taking their bodies into hers in a sacred cycle of life and precious resources. Nature does not worship death. She gives all her resources to the living and is unflinching in her never-ending quest for life. The mother recovered, and when conditions improved, she laid another clutch with the same male. Together the pair successfully raised five young in the same season.”

“As global climate change sets in, one day of significant rainfall can cause flash flooding that can drown the owls nesting in their underground burrows. Or only four days of continuous cold, rainy weather not uncommon for the Pacific Northwest in the spring- at the wrong time in the nesting cycle can cause owl young to starve because their fathers can’t hunt, wiping out an entire generation.”

“The tiny Northern Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium gnoma), the second-smallest owl in the Pacific Northwest, defies much of what is considered common knowledge about owls. These owls hunt songbirds that are close to their own size and live their lives during daylight hours. The satellite-dish-like owl face, common to other owls, is ill defined.”

“One of the best ways to discover what owls eat is for biologists to examine the pellets that owls regurgitate every six to eight hours. Each pellet may contain several animals that the owl has caught, killed, and swallowed. Because owls swallow their prey whole and cannot digest things like fur, bones, and teeth, the skeletons are remarkably intact and can be easily reconstructed and identified – much like reassembling dinosaur bones.”

“Long- and Short-eared Owls also share the habit of communal roosting, with Long-eareds taking the practice to the extreme. In northern Serbia, some twenty thousand Long-eared Owls are said to roost during the winter months. In the small town of Kikinda, Serbia, known as the “Owl Capital of the World,” near the Romanian border, as many as eight hundred Long-eared Owls have been counted roosting in the trees of the town square. The owls have become such an important tourist attraction that the local government passed an ordinance banning any activities that would disturb the owls, with heavy fines for disobeying. The owls appear to be attracted to the large local population of meadow voles, which seem to thrive under the traditional farming practices used by local farmers.”

“Owls prefer not to hunt in rain. They have given up the oil found in many feathers, which protects other birds from rain, for soft, silent feathers more valuable for stealthy hunting.”

“Evelyn began installing nest platforms for the owls to use, a program that has spread to other parts of Oregon.

“How can I find them?” I asked Evelyn.

“Call the Forest Service office,” she said. “They should be able to tell you. They check the platforms as a courtesy to the members of the public who want to see Great Grays.””

“In a single year, one Great Gray Owl may eat as many as eighteen hundred rodents.”

“I could see the mother’s mottled brown wings and head, the thin brown horizontal bars up and down her front, and the tall black feathers atop her head that give the Great Horned Owl its name. These “ear tufts,” as they are called, are neither ears nor horns, but feathers, which aid in camouflage as well as revealing the Great Horned Owl’s emotional state in the same way as the ear tufts of Long-eared Owls.”

“Great Horned Owls are predators of Great Grays. Even though the Great Grays are the tallest of the North American Owls, they are mostly feathers, weighing only about two and a half pounds. Great Horned Owls, third in size after Great Gray Owls and Snowy Owls, weigh three to four pounds and are one of the more aggressive species. To kill a Great Gray Owl would be a risky hunt for a Great Horned Owl, chancing the loss of an eye or a talon that would endanger his own survival, but sometimes they take the risk.

I remembered the one-eyed Great Horned Owl mother on the Depot trying to protect her chick. If the Great Horned Owls are desperate enough, they will attack the larger Great Gray. The Great Horned Owl father may have been that desperate because helicopter logging had been taking place near his territory, just across the valley from the Great Gray territory on GROWISER. Most likely the logging had disturbed the Great Horned father and his usual prey, so that he had to fly farther to provide for his growing family. Now, because his family and livelihood were threatened by human activity, he became a threat to the Great Gray Owl family.”