Brent Vogt, age 8, of Erie, Penn., for his question:
ARE THERE MANY KINDS OF OWLS?
Owls can be found in all parts of the world. There are three owl families: the bay owls, the barn owls and the tropical owls. There are about 125 species of tropical owls, nine species of barn owls and two species of bay owls.
Are owls really wise? You may have heard the stories that owls know just about everything, but this has never been proved in tests. Scientists now say that owls, compared to other birds, are neither smarter nor dumber.
Best known of the owls found in North America are the screech, the snowy, the great horned, the barn and the barred owls.
An owl can be from five to 27 inches long. These birds have powerful, needlelike claws that are called talons. Owls are birds of prey. They can use their talons like the jaws of a trap. The talons have one toe which the owl can change from a forward to a backward position.
Around the owl's strong hooked bill are small, curved feathers that form a ruff. In most species, the large eyes help the owl to see better during the evenings and on moonlit nights than during the daytime. Owls can't see in complete darkness, but they can see on nights that people could call completely dark.
Owls hunt best at dawn or dusk or on moonlit nights.
The owl has better ears than any other bird. Its two ears may be of different shapes and are hidden in the head feathers. What are often called ears are actually only tufts of feathers. The owl can hear a mouse scamper over the ground many feet away.
When an owl is listening from its hunting perch, it spreads out the feathers and skin which cover its ears. This forms a large funnel which collects even the faintest sound. After it locates the prey by sound, the owl attacks swiftly on noiseless wings and captures the prey with its talons.
Most owls swallow the small animals on which they live. Later they spit up pellets formed from the fur or feathers and bones which they cannot digest.
Owls eat mammals such as mice, squirrels and rabbits. They also eat reptiles, frogs, birds and even fish. They are better at catching mice than most manmade mouse traps.
Most owls like to build their nests in hollows of trees or in deserted woodpeckers' nests. A female owl will lay from one to 11 eggs in the nest. The eggs are white and some are almost round.
Barn owls build their nests in barns or belfries. Several species of owls nest in burrows already dug in the ground. Some of these owls even live in part of a prairie dog's burrow.
The owl has soft furry edges to the flight feathers on its wings. This makes its flight almost noiseless since it is the hard straight edge of a bird's flight feathers that make a whistling or fluttering noise with each wing movement.
Only four of the owls in North America may be called "hoot" owls: the great horned, the great gray, the barred and the long eared. These owls have many "hoots" and "whoos." Other owls make noises like sneezes, coughs and whistles.