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Owls are considered as a symbolic representation of wisdom.                     In some communities, owl are considered as bad luck, but in some parts of the world they are considered as birds of luck.                       Owls could rotate their head up to an angle of 270 degrees.                           The world’s smallest owl weighs nearly 30 grams only.

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Bird Watching with Chippy the Blue Bird  
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Hi, I’m Chippy the Blue bird.  Welcome to my bird watching time! Today, there is a surprise for you! I’m sharing my bird watching experience with an wonderful bird at night. Any guesses? Yes, that is the magnificent bird, Owl. What comes to your mind when you think about this bird? Something creepy? Ha! Ha! :-)) Ok. Owls are carnivorous birds that could be seen almost in all the parts of the world. Now, the story. Yesterday, I stayed in a hill side and I could hear a low musical sound, a call from a bird. I approached the direction from where the sound was coming. At last I found, it is none other than an owl making the hoot! Click! I just had a shot of the owl in my little camera. Have a look!

Short Eared Owl

Eagle Owl

Owls have a nocturnal behavior, that means they are active at night. As you may know, their unique eyes make this bird beautiful. Unlike other birds, both of their eyes are in the front of their flat looking face. Their eyes are powered with binocular vision and with their sharp eyes they could see things even in dark. As an disadvantage, they should rotate their heads to view other directions. Since they are far sighted, they could not see things very near to them. Most of their physical features are very supportive to them to be active in dark.

Here is an Scops Owl image. Could you find any  difference between the color of the tree bark and the owl’s feathers? Did you notice the color of its feathers?

Scops Owl

Their dark and brown colored feathers make them camouflaged and hide them from their prey and  this characteristic could help them to catch their prey with a sudden attack. Serrated edges of the feathers of the owls help them to fly silently though they make a swift movement to catch their prey. One more thing about the feathers are they are not water proof as some other birds have. Downy feathers which give a puffy look to them help them to retain the temperature of their body.

 

Another interesting thing about this bird is, their ears have been placed asymmetrically. This adaptation of this bird helps them to hear even a minute sound from any direction.

Sharp talons, down-facing beak and specialized hearing abilities are other interesting features of this beautiful bird.

Brown Fish Owl

Yesterday night, I noticed this too. I heard a sound on the ground. It was dark every where. Based on the sound, I could only guess that a small-sized rodent is moving under the dry leaves on the ground around me. But I could not see anything! Alas! What a scene! What a silent attack! Just happened in a fraction of a second! I could see a Eurasian Eagle owl with a big rat on its mouth was siting on a branch of a tree. Really it was a heavy bird. You know, Big sized owls could weight up to 4.5  kg. Some big owls will feed on the small sized species of their own kind. I think they are the real helpers of farmers by weeding out these rats from their farms. mm.. Really, I did appreciate the hunting skills of this bird with its extraordinary hearing and vision abilities even in a dark time.

Little Owl

Owls could hunt birds of same size as them and small mammals like rats, bugs are their common food. As a special case, fish owls have fishes in their main diet.

Strigidae – typical owls and Tytonidea – barn owls are the two main families of owls and nearly 220+ subspecies have been identified under the 2 families. Elf owl, Fish owl, great grey owl, barn owl, eagle owl and pygmy owl are some of the commonly known types of owls.

OK, its the time to go. See you in the next bird watching time! Bye for now! Chirp! Chirp!

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