We see an object in front of us with both eyes. What we see through one eye overlaps much of what we see through the other eye. People and owls, with eyes located on the front of their face, have what is called binocular vision. Some birds have an eye on each side of their head, like a robin, who sees one scene with its right eye and a completely different scene with its left. Their eyes contain very few cones, however, so what humans see in color looks mostly black and white to an owl. An owl’s eyes are packed with rods, so they see very well in the dark. Named after their shapes, these cells are called rods and cones. An owl’s eyes contain cells that are sensitive to light, just like human eyes do. Some owl species have eyes larger than humans. This is false – the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl, for example, is one of the many owl species that hunt in broad daylight. People once thought that owls were blind during the day. An owl’s large pupils help it hunt in the dark. At night, the pupil expands to let in lots of light. In the bright glare of a sunny day, the pupil shrinks to block out some of the light. The pupil controls how much light gets into the eye. At the center of the iris is the dark, round pupil. Some European owls have orange eyes.Ī thin tissue, called the iris, covers the front of the eye and gives the eyeball its color. Owl species that live in North America have bright yellow or brown eyes. The magnificent eyes of owls come in three colors. Once an owl has done this, it has pinpointed the location of the sound and is ready to pounce – even if it has not seen its prey. The owl moves its head until the noise reaches both ears at the same time. If an owl hears a mouse rustling, perhaps even below a blanket of snow, the sound may reach one ear before it reaches the other ear. These owls use their uneven ears to judge exactly where sound is coming from. Others have asymmetrical placement, where an ear on one side of the head is located above the one on the other side of the head, which increases their ability to locate sound on a vertical axis. Some owls have ears located directly across from each other, in symmetrical placement. The facial disc captures and funnels sound into the owl’s ears, just as a TV satellite dish funnels broadcast signals into its antenna. The rings of feathers are called the facial disc. Each slit is a flap of skin, called an ear conch (pronounced konk), which opens into a large ear canal, as shown above.Īn owl opens and closes its ear conches by using muscles beneath the rings of feathers around the owl’s face. ![]() To adopt an owl, please click here to access our application form, and either bring it to MBO if you are volunteering, or mail it to the address on the form.Where are an owls’ ears anyway? If you looked deep under the head feathers of an owl, you would discover that it has a slit on each side of its skull. Otherwise we will randomly select from among the owls we have recently banded to fulfill all other adoption requests. If you are participating in the owl banding program as a volunteer, you may choose the particular owl you wish to adopt, and in most cases will be given an opportunity to release it after banding. Additionally, we will provide any updates that we receive if the owl is subsequently reported elsewhere (as has already been the case for two of the owls banded in 2009, later recaptured in New York and Virginia). For each adoption we will issue a personalized 8.5" x 11" certificate including your name (or if you prefer to make the adoption a gift, you can specify a different name), and a photo of "your" owl, plus details such as its age, sex, and weight, and the date and time of its capture. In 2009 effort was expanded and the number of owls banded jumped from an average of 16 in previous years to 76! However, we can only maintain that level of monitoring in future years if we raise sufficient funds to operate a full-time program during owl migration.Īs a fundraising effort for this program, we are offering an opportunity to "adopt" individual owls. MBO has been banding Northern Saw-whet Owls since 2004.
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