We assume that owls, being primarily a bird of the night, must have superior eyesight. Actually, they can see no better than humans or cats at night. What makes them especially talented at obtaining food after dark is their hearing.
While owls do see well in dim light, it is their ears that make them such great hunters at night. Owls have large ear openings just behind their eyes. With special feathers as part of their facial disks, which act like sound funnels as well as asymmetrical ear locations, they can hear the slightest rustle of sound of an insect or a mouse/vole under leaves or snow.
Researchers focus on Barn Owls, which may have the best hearing of all owls, and have discovered how the Barn Owl’s brain can create a map or mental picture of space around a sound. Mathematical and statistical professors at Swarthmore College researched the neural dynamics of high frequency detection in the bird sound localization circuit.
The professors developed a mathematical model that describes the activity of neurons in the auditory system of Barn Owls which play a critical role in localizing sound sources. The Barn Owl can detect microsecond scale differences. Barn Owls can detect the source of sound within 2 degrees in the horizontal plane and 4 degrees in the vertical plane. In one study, Barn Owls had their eyes covered and the owls still caught prey using only their hearing.
The right ear is upward facing while the left ear is downward facing. Each ear helps to provide cues for vertical localization of sounds for mice, voles or beetles. They can tilt their heads 90 degrees to the side when listening to prey.
Saw Whet Owls have large wide heads and the increased distance between their ears improves their sensitivity to sound localization. Large wide heads are true to all owls, including the largest such as the Great Horned Owl, Great Gray Owl and Snowy Owl.
Saw Whet Owls are also adept at capturing their prey, especially when they have owlets in a nest box. Observers have found as many as 27 dead mice surrounding young owlets in a nest box. All prey caught by the hearing of the parent. Young owlets in a bird box, I observed, would tilt their heads left and right as well as up and down to identify sounds on the grounds below the nest hole.
Eyesight, hearing and flight adaptations make any owl a fearsome predator at night. They can fly as quietly as a moth.
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