They have asymmetrical ears, immobile tube-shaped eyes and heads they can rotate to 270°. If you were to see a group of them, you could refer to them as a “parliament” — thanks to C.S. Lewis and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Any ideas who we are talking about? Yes, owls.
These mystifying, yet fascinating birds can be harbingers of bad luck or precursors of good times — depending on who you ask.
Ancient Greeks and Romans associated owls with the goddess Athena — hence, wisdom and prophecy. In parts of Africa, the Middle East and among some Native American tribes, owls are seen as bad omens. But, many European cultures see them as figures of wisdom. For the Ainu people of Japan they are gods, and as for the Hopi tribe of the American Southwest they are sacred.
Night raiders
Their eyes are fixed. So, if they need to look at something that is not in front of them, they have to turn their head around. They are far-sighted and can see in the dark. They have a heightened sense of hearing and can hear their prey under leaves, plants, dirt and even snow. When they fly, they make no sound. This is because they have special feathers that reduce the sound, and, their soft velvety down further muffles noise. They are masters of camouflage.
While most of them hoot, there are some that make hissing sounds, some screech while others whistle. Much like the goblins in the toadstools, elf owls, found in southwestern U.S. and Mexico, live in cacti.
But, best of all, they are great friends of the farmer, as they are nature’s gift to pest control. They eat rodents and help keep the numbers down. Shunning pesticides and other harmful fertilizer, farmers are now installing owl nesting boxes wooing owls to make their homes in them.
International Festival of Owls from March 1 to 3 is set aside to celebrate the owl. The festival began in Houston, Minnesota, the U.S in 2003. It was a hatch-day party for Alice the Great Horned Owl. Alice is an injured, human-imprinted owl (a form of learning in which an animal gains its sense of species identification) at the Houston Nature Center. The day teaches people about owls and provides a fun, family-friendly activity.
