Are Owls super strong?

Hey, smarty pants, guess what animal’s going to be a guest on today’s show? I’ll give you three hints. Ready? Number one, it’s nocturnal, which means it’s active at night. Number two, they’re thought to be wise.

And bad luck. Number three, some of these animals lure their prey with lumps of poop.

Wow, out of all our amazing qualities, you had a…

Bring up the poop. Oh, hey, guest animal. You startled me. I didn’t notice you come in.

That’s because I’m incredibly stealthy, you could’ve mentioned that, but nope, had to go right for the poop.

Well, a lot of animals are stealthy, but only a few. You know, not to mention the listeners get a kick out of me mentioning poop. The smarty pants. Who? The smarty pants. Who? The smarty pants. I thought you had good hearing.

Oh, you’re not saying who -w -h -o. Never mind. Okay, smarty pants, you have lots of hints to go on. Plus, you probably read the name of this episode. So did you guess I’m talking to? An owl?

They’re smotty pants, just like owls.

Actually, owls are no more intelligent than most birds.

Oh, yeah? Well, if you’re so smart, trusty narrator, what’s a stridger form?

Uh, you’re not gonna give me multiple choice? I give the smarty pants multiple choices. It’s only fair.

Fine is a strigeiform, A, an owl’s habitat, B, the category of bird owls belongs to, or C, the owl’s mating dance.

Oof. That’s a toughie. We’ll answer that question and a lot more about owls, like, what makes owls such good hunters? How do their big eyes work? And how do they use their poop to catch their dinner?

It’s time for another whiff of science on…

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Owls are birds, but they’re not just any kind of bird.

We’re stranger forms!

Yep, a stridiform is the scientific word for the type of bird that an owl is. There are over 250 species of owls, or stridiformes.

And our category is a part of another larger category of birds called raptors.

Raptors are simply birds of prey. You got your…

Eagle, your hawk, your vultures, your buzzards.

all birds who swoop in and use their sharp curved beaks to snatch and gulp other animals. Hence the word prey in birds of prey. So, pray tell, how are owls different from other raptors?

biggest difference is those other birds hunt during the day but most owls hunt at night

Like we said earlier, owls are nocturnal. So what makes them such great night hunters? Is it A, their excellent night vision? B, excellent hearing? Or C, their stealthy flying? I say all three. Sure, all three answers factor in, but it’s your night vision that really sets you apart as a night hunter.

Smarty Pants, picture an owl. Or better yet, draw a picture of an owl. What’s the first thing that comes to mind? Would you say they’re big, round eyes? But here’s the crazy part. Owls’ eyes aren’t like the eyeballs that you or I or most animals have.

They’re tubular like binoculars. Huh? If you’ve ever looked through binoculars, you know you can see what’s in front of you really well, but not to the sides. Well, the same is true for owls.

My owl eyes might not be so good at looking from side to side. But guess what? Owls found a way around that.

Ah, I see what you did there. Smarty Pants, do you know what owls can do to compensate for their lack of side or peripheral vision? Did you say that they can turn their heads all the way around? That’s right.

Everyone, turn your head to look over your right shoulder. Now, if you were an owl, you could keep turning your head until you were looking completely behind you. Whoa. Now, imagine turning your head even more until you were looking forward again over your left shoulder.

Impressive, right?

Very, but that’s not all. Besides seeing, owls have another heightened sense. Smarty pants, which other sense makes owls great at hunting? Is it smell, taste, touch, or hearing? Did you guess?

Hearing? Owls have excellent hearing to detect even the slightest sound of movement below. Oh, and don’t be fooled by those cute little tufts of feathers many owls have sprouting out of the heads. They may look like ears, but they don’t do any hearing.

They’re just part of our smart appearance. An owl’s hearing comes from small oval openings that sit flat against the sides of our heads, covered by our feathers.

and get this, some owl species have ears that are asymmetrical. Instead of being even with each other, like most humans and animals, an owl might have one ear much higher or lower than the other. But why?

Well, my higher ear is better for picking up sounds above me. While my lower ear is better at picking up noises below me. Like a scurrying mouse.

An owl’s brain can quickly calculate where a sound is coming from in just 30 millionths of a second. That is faster than an eye blink.

Don’t forget my special claw. How could I? But you tell it. As you probably know, instead of having fingers and toes, birds have talons. Owls, like parrots and cuckoos, are what’s known as zygodactyl.

Zygodactyl birds have four talons, two facing forward, two facing backward. This makes it easy to grip and perch on branches and handle food. However, owls are special among zygodactyls. One of our backward facing talons is reversible.

It can face backward or forward as needed.

Whoa!

with your big, thoughtful eyes and your ability to hunt so well at night. It’s no wonder owls seem very wise. But what about your other reputation as a symbol of bad luck?

Ah, it’s just a bunch of hoo -haw. So owls aren’t bad luck. Not unless you’re a rodent, like a mouse or a vole. Then sure, seeing an owl might not be great news.

But wait, even with your night vision, 270 degree head turning and cool reversible talon, how are you able to swoop in and snatch your prey?

Easy. Owls are masters of stealth. But do you know why we’re so stealthy? Here’s a multiple choice. Is it A, our reversible talent lets us tiptoe? B, we have special wings and feathers. Or C, we have super speed.

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Trust me, it’s a game changer. Now back to who smarted. We know that owls are masters of stealth. So what gives them that edge? Is it tiptoeing, special wings and feathers, or super speed? Well, many other birds of prey like eagles, falcons, and hawks are faster than owls.

And while it would look cute, owls are not tiptoers. Nope. They swoop in to catch their prey, which means owls have special wings and feathers allowing them to be stealthy.

Here, check out this feather. What do you notice?

Your feathers are really soft and they have cool zig -zag edges.

Yep, unlike a clean straight edge, which is loud, our feathers make almost no sound when we fly. And our big wide wings require less flapping than other birds of prey, which minimizes sound. Ah. Oh, I’m going to need that feather back.

Smarty, please.

Did you know that it’s illegal to keep an owl’s feather and about 1 ,000 other bird species feathers too?

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 was written to protect birds from humans. No offense, trusty.

untaken. Just like other animals, many bird species would become extinct if society didn’t take action.

And since our beautiful feathers were off in the reason we were hunted, the rule is simple. No, owl feathers are loud. Well, I think that’s just about everything.

Uh, not quite. There’s one other thing.

Ah, they knew you were gonna bring up the poop.

Come on, you gotta admit, the poop strategy is genius. Fine, you tell it. Smarty pants, check this out. One type of owl, one of the few that hunts during the day, figured out that by putting piles of their poop near the entrance of the burrows where they live, they could lure in a certain kind of beetle.

The name of the owl is the long -legged burrowing owl, and the kind of beetle they like to eat is the dung beetle. Dung is another word for poop. Ah. When the beetle goes for the delicious poop, the owl goes for the delicious beetle.

Smarty pants.

Yes, owls are smart, but I prefer to highlight our more sophisticated characteristics.

Oh, like how owls throw up pellets after eating another animal whole? Oh boy. Care to explain, or should I?

I’ll do it. So, we’ve established that owls are good at catching prey. But what you might not know is owls typically eat the smaller animals we catch in one bite. If it’s a bigger animal, we’ll use our sharp beat to break it apart.

Either way, there isn’t a lot of chewing going on with owls. But there are parts of our prey we can’t digest. Fur, teeth, bones, not happening. Fortunately, us owls understand our digestive limitations.

We simply eat the whole animal and just barf up the parts we can’t digest. Comes out packed up tight in a little pellet. So smart. As gross as it seems, there’s a whole hobby based on dissecting owl pellets.

Anyone can do it. Not just an ornithologist.

Smarty Pants, shout out what an ornithologist studies. Did you say that an ornithologist studies birds? Nice.

and owl pellets and bird behaviors like how different birds couple up to have babies.

How do potential owl mommies and daddies find each other to start a family?

It’s actually very sweet. First, the male owl has to get the female owl’s attention. Each owl species has a different sounding mating call. Female owls can tell the difference and only responds to calls from their specific owl species.

But we can be some pretty tough birds sometimes. We make the male owls do stuff like fluff out their fancy feathers or perform a sky dance. That’s where they show off the fanciest flying dance moves.

Swoopin’ and swirlin’ and slappin’ their wings together.

How exciting! And when it’s time to start a family, the females lay the baby owl legs.

Yep, and we’re super smart about that too. Different species lay different numbers of eggs. However, mama owls will lay fewer eggs if there isn’t enough food around. It’s like their bodies are making sure the baby owls will be well provided for.

Thanks, mama. Mama owls sit on their eggs to keep them warm. We even lose a patch of feathers on our bellies because the bare skin is better at transferring body heat to our little eggies. Thanks again, mama.

Once the eggs hatch, the baby owls need lots of attention. They can’t see or fly yet, so mama owl keeps them close, or even underneath her, until they’re able to provide enough body warmth for themselves.

When baby owls depart the nest, they’re known as fledglings.

Hey, you know who’s pretty smart, too? Who? Who? Who?

Oh, thanks. A big shout out to Elliot in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee. We’re so happy to have you smarting with us, and we’re glad to hear that Who Smarted helps you learn and makes you laugh, and that we make the ride to school so much better.

What can I say, Elliot? That’s what we do. Keep on smarting, smarty pants. This episode, Owls, was written by Jenna Hoban and voiced by Jenna Hoban, Katie Lou Chastain, and Jerry Colbert, Technical Direction and Sound Design by Josh Hahn.

Who Smarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios. Our associate producer is Max Kamaski. The theme song is by Brian Suarez, with lyrics written and performed by Adam Tex Davis. Who Smarted was created and produced by Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Colbert.

This has been an Atomic Entertainment production.

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