What An Owl Know by Jennifer Ackerman

Owls are iconic--you know one when you see one; which is almost never because they are so elusive and camouflaged. I was on a guided bird walk through a county park and one of the guides from another group had a Barred Owl in his scope. He kept it in place and walked every single person who wanted to see it through spotting it--even knowing that I was looking right at it, I had trouble picking it out, so hidden was it in the tree. And I was clearly not the only one. They have cultural significance and are often depicted in art. They are associated with wisdom and prophecy (the goddess Athena and her owl) to some; to others they are considered portents of bad luck, illness and even death. Here are my take aways from this book, where I learned far more than I knew (not really a stretch, as I knew almost nothing besides how hard they are to find, and so logically, they are also hard to study. They have huge eyes--like enormous. Their bodies a tiny, skinny things and their eyes are 7% of their total body weight. If it were a human, our eyes would be the size of oranges. One researcher's theory of why their eyes face forward is that is ergonomics--they wouldn't be able to hold their heads up if they were laterally placed. They have the most highly specialized feathers of any bird, with many shapes with different purposes, and thousands of them. One counted over 12,000 on an owl, whereas a bird of similar size has 1/3 that many. Their hearing is exquisite--they hunt in total darkness, guided by sound to their prey--the feathers help them gather the sounds, and 75% of their brain power is devoted to seeing and hearing. So maybe they are not so much wise as having spy potential. There is much more to be found in here, and I recommend it even if you have only a passing interest in birds. It will leave you wanting more.