Since owls have the night pretty much to themselves, as far as birds are concerned, they have evolved into a wide variety of shapes, sizes, and behaviors. Color is their least variable aspect. They come mostly in cryptic browns and greys, since their plumage matters less for courtship than for concealment. Their courtship, conducted mostly in the dark, is primarily vocal. But owl size ranges from the enormous eagle owls to the tiny sparrow-sized elf owl of Arizona. A murder of crows: one of the best-known ones, with a few theories on its origin, ranging from their scavenging nature, their presence after a battle, and folk tales about crow “trials” in which the guilty “defendant” is killed by the others Owl diets vary with size and habitat. While smaller owls eat insects and little birds, larger ones can handle midsized mammals. Great horned owls’ nests are said to smell often of skunk. A few owls are adapted to catching fish. One of these, the Blakiston’s fish-owl, is among the world’s largest. My wife and I were once taken to a restaurant on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido where the main attraction was not the sushi (about which I remember little) but the unforgettable nightly visit of an enormous Blakiston’s fish-owl that came to a small stream just outside the window to feed. The restaurant owner, I suspect, put out some extra fish. There are over two hundred species of owls, but the exact number keeps changing. Therefore Marianne Taylor’s rash promise to portray “every species in the world” is impossible to keep. On the one hand, vulnerable species are going extinct. The laughing owl of New Zealand disappeared at least fifty years ago, and more tropical species are likely to follow it into oblivion as forests are cleared for palm oil plantations or other agricultural purposes. The Pernambuco pygmy-owl, native to the nearly vanished primary rainforests of northeastern Brazil, has not been seen since 2004, Taylor tells us. The many species limited to a single island in Indonesia or the Philippines are vulnerable not only to deforestation but also to invasive predators such as rats, snakes, and ants. Still others may turn out on closer study to be merely local variants of a single species.

Battling the waters for fish: Battling the weather for a tug on the line at Silver Creek, Lake Milton Naming convention began in 1486 with 'The Book of Saint Albans' The poet reels much in the command of English. Adipo enjoys the music from the words flowing through his pen.The book invites the reader to take a taxi to ‘poetry galaxy to discover verse, reality and music’. Heinrich, Bernd (1987): One Man's Owl. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-08470-1. OCLC 15486687. Do you ever use the term “ rhumba” of rattlesnakes? “ Congress” of salamanders? “ Bask” of crocodiles? “ Generation” of vipers?a b c Martin G.R. (1982). "An owl's eye: schematic optics and visual performance in Strix aluco L". J Comp Physiol. 145 (3): 341–349. doi: 10.1007/BF00619338. S2CID 35039625. The technical term for collective nouns for groups of animals, by the way, is terms of venery. These form part of a larger trend in the late Middle Ages of adopting specific hunting terminology from French. Probably to make the practice of killing animals feel more respectable, I imagine. I won’t list all the terms here, but I will look at a few of my favourites: Newes / newes / newes / have ye ony newes / Myneeres ake / to here you call and crye / Ben bokes made with whystelynge and whewes / Ben there not yet ynow to your fantasye / In fayth nay I trow and yet haue ye dayly / Of maters sadde / and eke of apes and oules / But yet for your pleasure / thusmoche do wyll I / As to lette you here the parlament of foules. Mike Unwin, who has watched and admired owls all over the world, captures the essence of each species, while explaining the unique natural history that has made these silent assassins the most effective feathered predators of darkness. Along the way he describes a fascinating range of breeding and hunting behaviour, the unusual calls that have given rise to so much superstition, and the cultural impact of owls around the world. Lenders, E. W. (1914). "The Myth of the 'Wah-ru-hap-ah-rah,' or the Sacred Warclub Bundle". Zeitschrift für Ethnologie. 46: 404–420 (409).

No. Parliament, being of Norman French origin (see parler to talk/speak in Modern French) originates from the Norman Conquest. Sexual dimorphism is a physical difference between males and females of a species. Female owls are typically larger than the males. [12] The degree of size dimorphism varies across multiple populations and species, and is measured through various traits, such as wing span and body mass. [12] a b Neuhaus W.; Bretting H. & Schweizer B. (1973). "Morphologische und funktionelle Untersuchungen über den, lautlosen" Flug der Eulen (strix aluco) im Vergleich zum Flug der Enten (Anas platyrhynchos)". Biologisches Zentralblatt. 92: 495–512.

Still, it’s fun to learn the collective noun for animal groups, often quirky or peculiar, but also spot on at times, and that knowledge may win you a trivia game in the future. Giraffes 'tower,' hippos 'bloat' and crocodiles 'bask' On the other hand, new species of owls are being discovered. A few have been found the old-fashioned way, by hard slogging in remote places. In September 1976, John P. O’Neill and Gary Graves, researchers from Louisiana State University, were studying the birds of an unexplored stretch of dense cloud forest high in the northern Peruvian Andes. They were preparing to strike camp after three unsuccessful days in the rain when a tiny owl turned up in one of their nets. They had never seen anything like it. They named it the long-whiskered owlet for its strange facial bristles. It was so unlike any other owl that it was placed in a new genus all to itself, Xenoglaux, whose name is derived from the Greek words for “strange owl.” Additional long-whiskered owls weren’t found until 2007. Since then, an ecotourism business has grown around a reliable location where birders who want to see this bizarre creature can stay in a comfortable lodge. a b Walls G.L. (1942) The vertebrate eye and its adaptive radiation, Cranbook Institute of Science. On the other end of the spectrum, it would be cute to see a “scurry” or “dray” of squirrels; a “raft” of otters or a “bale” of turtles. I was watching the French-language Belgian news, specifically a story about Le Parlement Bruxellois. The similarity between the word parlement, and the French verb parler ( to speak) was obvious. A parliament is a place where politicians go to talk together about important issues (insert clichéd joke about them talking all day and getting nothing done).

All owls are carnivorous birds of prey and live on diets of insects, small rodents and lagomorphs. Some owls are also specifically adapted to hunt fish. They are very adept in hunting in their respective environments. Since owls can be found in nearly all parts of the world and across a multitude of ecosystems, their hunting skills and characteristics vary slightly from species to species, though most characteristics are shared among all species. [17] Flight and feathers External videos A “pod” of whales can also be called a “gam,”“herd" and “plump,” but a group of the narwhal whales is called a “blessing.” However, Iron Lady Owl leads some owls in rebelling against bad governance. The rebel owls, together with Day Birds, Grain Eaters and some Night Birds and Omnivores ( like Fleshy Carcass Vulture) join hands to support a tiny female Day Peters, Dieter Stefan (January 2007). "The fossil family Ameghinornithidae (Mourer-Chauviré 1981): a short synopsis" (PDF). Journal of Ornithology. 148 (1): 25–28. doi: 10.1007/s10336-006-0095-z. S2CID 27322057. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022.

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Today the few spotted owls that remain in the United States (they are nearly gone from Canada) have a new enemy. The closely related but more aggressive barred owl, abundant in the eastern United States, is expanding into the Pacific Northwest, where it pushes out the slightly smaller spotted owl. The US Forest Service has been discreetly culling barred owls in that region. Even so, the spotted owl could become the first North American owl to go extinct. The prominences above a great horned owl's head are commonly mistaken as its ears. This is not the case; they are merely feather tufts. The ears are on the sides of the head in the usual location (in two different locations as described above). a b c Lundberg, Arne (May 1986). "Adaptive advantages of reversed sexual size dimorphism in European owls". Ornis Scandinavica. 17 (2): 133–140. doi: 10.2307/3676862. JSTOR 3676862.