What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World's Most Enigmatic Birds

by Jennifer Ackerman

Scientists studying barn owls have discovered that the baby owls sleep like baby humans, spending more time in REM (or dream) sleep than adult owls. Why?

In tropical regions, owls may form communities with up to seven different species living together. The Mottled Owl of Central and South America has been known to hold meetings of several individuals during the night—a true parliament of owls—for a still mysterious purpose.

Now most owls share an array of remarkable features that distinguish them from other birds and give them a unique ability to hunt at night, including retinas rich in cells that provide good vision in dim light, superior hearing, and soft, camouflaged feathers tailored for quiet flight.

260 species of owls exist today, and

That owl seemed like a messenger from another time and place, like starlight. Being near her somehow made me feel smaller in my body and bigger in my soul.

An owl’s auditory system shares with other birds another superpower we mammals don’t possess: it doesn’t age. To

The Long-eared Owl has four times the number of feathers of other similar-size non-owl birds.

If the vocalizations of owls are hardwired, does that mean one owl’s territorial call sounds similar to another’s? Or are owl voices like ours, rich with signatures of individual identity?

Each individual Great Horned Owl has a signature hoot. To varying degrees, this is true for all owl species, from Barred Owls and Tawny Owls to pygmy owls and screech owls.

Why some species have more individuality in their calls than others is a puzzle, but Linhart thinks that species with more complex calls encode more

Both male and female Eurasian Eagle Owls have a deep, sonorous, booming two-syllable territorial hoot, a loud ooo and lower, descending hoo, but the notes are often so close they sound like a single slurred hoot, repeated every ten seconds or so. “They sing from a prominent perch,” says Savelsberg,