Do Owls migrate? Usually, owls don’t like to travel but they have to migrate in the winter season in search of food. Most of the species even don’t like to migrate in the winter season. They spend their whole year in the same nest. They are well adapted for the seasons. For instance, they have small feathers as well to provide heat.
Survival of owls in the winter season
Weather is not as effective for animals as it is for human beings. Most of the breeds of animals are totally not affected by the cold or winter season. The same is the case with the owls. They are truly adapted to the cold environment. Nature has created them in that way.
If anyone is out there in the snow, he would definitely get a frozen bite, or become sick. To assume the worst scenario, he can die if he couldn’t be able to tolerate that coldness of the weather. But speaking of owls, they have opposite natures. They prey on their food and hunt the very best at night.
So, it can’t be denied that weather does not affect them the way it affects human beings. That is the reason that most of the species of owls migrate neither in winter nor in summer.
Adaptations of owls
Following are the adaptations of owls according to the situation;
Special feathers
Forgetting warm, owls cannot add up a layer of fat on their body as it would make them too heavy to fly. So, they have a special characteristic for this purpose. As we all know that they are covered with feathers from top to bottom of their body but, we don’t know the fact that they can also produce feathers especially for warmth.
As they do not have a fat layer, but they do need something to get their bodies warm in a chilling environment. They can produce more feathers deep down on their bodies for getting a warm layer in order to prevent themselves from getting any side effects of cold weather.
These feathers are shorter in size and are present under their main feathers which are relatively larger in size. Fluffing their feathers along with shivering can warm up the air that is trapped inside their feathers making a lovely warm layer around their bodies which helps them to cope up with the winter season.
These small feathers play a very crucial role in making that warm layer around them. Their normal or original feathers are not capable of getting them warm.
Special feet
Their feet are well adapted to the warm weather. They have pretty good blood circulation in their feet and legs to get protection against cold. However, their outer skin of feet still gets very cold when they come in contact with really cold weather.
But the amazing feature is that they are not at all affected by the chilled skin of the feet. Humans are very affected when they get their skin cold. Their skin often gets dry during chilling seasons. But owls are very smart and always made some amazing changes for getting themselves prepared for winter.
The one thing that is worth noticing is that owls usually don’t have any pain receptors on the lower part of the body. So, that is one of the reasons that they are not affected if they have cold feet. They don’t suffer through their feet.
They do have a counter-current system to make them warm. The blood that returns to the body from the feet absorbs the hot air from the newly oxygenated blood that travels from the heart to the toes. With the aid of this system, the cold blood coming to the upper part of their bodies gets warm before they reach the upper parts.
Not only this, but it is also very smart of them that through this way, the blood that again moves to the lower portion of their bodies does not lose heat while coming down.
Summary
Owls are considered as very smart creatures because of their well-adapted behaviors according to the weather they are currently living in. although all of this is given to them by the nature itself they got a plus point of being called smart creatures.
Special ears
They have very sharp and sensitive ears that can hear a pin drop noise even from hundreds of miles apart. This is also one of their adaptation which helps them a lot in all seasons along with winter.
Their ears are strangely present in a way like, one of the ears is slightly higher than the other one, and also they have their facial disk set in a way that the sound that comes from anything goes directly into their ear canals which makes them hear even more clearly than normal.
Due to this feature, they can hear the small or tiny sounds that their prey makes while moving or doing something. Once it has seen the location of any rodent or mouse, then it is very unlikely that they failed to get to them.
Also because of the silent or muted sound of their feather movement, their prey also don’t get to know usually that anything is coming after them which makes it even easier for the owls because they don’t try to escape as they didn’t listen to anything.
Tigers of Skies
This is the name for not any human or hero of the world but this title is especially given to the owls. They are known as “Tigers of Skies” because of the way they have adapted themselves in a perfect manner, they truly deserve this title.
Specifically, this title is assigned to them because they are perfectly made up in such a perfect way for hunting at night when all the rest of the animals are done with their day that is the perfect time for an owl to hunt its prey.
Following are some of the other reasons because of which this title is given to them:
Vision
They have two eyes which work for them like they have more than two eyes. They are positioned in a very ideal manner and are fixed in place but it also allows them to toss their head round to 270 degrees. They have very big and shiny eyes that if any human has that ratio of eyes to the skull, then his eyes would be the size of an orange.
Other than human beings which only have cone cells in their eyes which makes them difficult to see in the very dark environment. But, owls on the other hand only have rod cells in their eyes which is responsible for their sharp vision at night.
Hearing
They owned a very smart hearing technique because as it is written earlier, they have ears located very different from the other one. One is slightly higher than the other which makes any sound waves go straight in the ear canal.
Paired with a facial disk of feathers that act very similar to satellite, they are capable of triangulating and listening to every sound wave even it is coming from the depth of tons of ice.
Beak
They have beaks made up in a special way. It is sharply pointed and angled downward for a certain reason. And the reason that lies behind this shape of their beak is that even their beak should not come in the passage of the sound waves that are traveling towards them.
But its beak is perfectly made by nature in its own way. They are as sharp as knives that can cut deep down into their prey, making them out of their breath. It can be said that they are as sharp as scissors to easily their large prey.
Feathers
Its feather is shaped like a comb which also has a purpose. It is made in that particular way so that it would be able to break up air through their comb-like feathers and have a silent flight throughout their flight. Their silent flight is especially useful when they sneak up on their prey.
Talons
They have very sharp and powerful talons. The talons of great horned owls are strong enough to prey on skunks and owls are the only natural predator of skunks.
Some amazing facts about owls
Following are some of the facts about owls that are mind-blowing and really make the owl the ideal creature of nature. These are as follows:
Owls are able to turn their heads to about 270 degrees. They can almost tilt their head all the way back. But not quite.
Owls have eyes that are able to look far away from their current position. They own far-sighted eyes, also tubular.
They have super-powered hearing abilities that make them hear from distant places.
Their specially designed feathers allow them to have a silent flight that makes it easy for them to sneak up on their prey silently.
Owls usually swallow their whole prey, after swallowing they then waste up the bits that are indigestible.
Sometimes, it is seen that owls can eat other owls. They often prey on their own species.
It is quite a harsh fact they first feed the baby owl who is the healthiest among all of their babies.
They usually sleep in the daylight and their feathers often make them invisible to their surroundings.
Often they make horrible noises that are too scary to listen to.
The smallest owl which is also known as elf owl. It often makes its house in the cactus plant or tree.
Summary
Owls are animals that are capable of adapting themselves totally according to their surroundings and weather.
Frequently asked questions:
Here are some of the frequently asked questions about Do Owls Migrate:
1. Do owls live in nests?
Some owls, such as the Great Horned Owls, use empty nests in trees or on cliffs, crows, rabbits, or other birds. Many owls simply make holes in trees. These wooden spaces occur naturally but are usually made by lumberjacks.
2. What do owls usually eat?
Owls are birds of prey, which means they have to kill other animals to survive. Their diet includes invertebrates such as insects, spiders, earthworms, snails, fish, reptiles, land and water animals, birds, and mammals.
3. How many species of owls are there?
There are about 250 species of owls are there in an environment. They can live on every continent except for Antarctica.
4. Do owls hunt?
Yes, they hunt the prey for their living. They usually have very strong eyes that help them to hunt easily.
5. Do owls lay eggs?
Normally, they lay eggs that range from 1 to 13 depending on the type of species. The normal breed of owls lays only 2-5 eggs.
Conclusion
Owls play an important role in the environment as predators. They control the population of insects and other small creatures by preying on them. Mammals are a primary prey so it could be really beneficial to humans in the sense that it may reduce the amount of food that is lost because of rodents.