Page 9 - Talk of Tequesta - October '21

The Talk Of Tequesta, Page 9

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Owls – Silent And Effective Predators

By Katie Roundtree, Finance Director, Northern Palm Beach County Improvement District

Florida is home to five retina give them Next time you’re outside in wooded areas around dawn
resident species of owls, excellent nocturnal or dusk, look up; or if you’re in an open area, watch your
including the barn owl, vision, useful when step and keep an eye out for ground burrows. You may be
barred owl, burrowing owl, hunting at night lucky enough to catch a glimpse of one of nature’s most
eastern screech owl and great or navigating dark accomplished predators.
horned owl. The largest of forests. NPDES tip: Please pick up after your pet. When pet
these owls is the great horned Their ability waste is washed into lakes or canals the waste decays,
owl, which is generally 18 to locate prey by using up oxygen and sometimes releasing ammonia.
to 25 inches tall, followed sound alone is the Low oxygen levels and ammonia combined with warm
by the barred owl and barn most accurate of temperatures can kill fish. Pet waste also contains
owl. The eastern screech owl any animal that has nutrients that encourage weed and algae growth. Perhaps
and burrowing owls are the ever been tested. most importantly, it is considered a significant source of
smaller species and measure only about 6 to 10 inches Owls can catch mice in complete darkness in the lab, or pathogens like fecal coliform, a disease-causing bacteria.
tall. All but the burrowing owl prefer to live high in trees, find prey hidden by vegetation or snow out in the real Source: Cornell University Cornell Lab of Ornithology
in either tree cavities or nesting boxes. Burrowing owls world. Their ears are placed unevenly on their head and
live in areas with wide-open spaces and little vegetation point in slightly different directions, giving the ability to
and spend most of their time on the ground or in burrows. hear where a sound is coming from without moving their
Each of the species have their own distinctive heads. Owls can also funnel sound toward their ears by
characteristics, but they all have one thing in common, manipulating different types of feathers around the ears
they are voracious eaters and can consume thousands of and face.
small rodents in a year. Because of this, they are a welcome They are silent predators. Both primary and secondary
addition in most farms and neighborhoods. Owls are mainly feathers have comb-like structures at the edge of the feather
nocturnal creatures and have developed some amazing that are responsible for muffling the sound of the air going
adaptations to be successful hunters, such as the ability to over the wing – this essentially makes an owl virtually
rotate their heads 270 degrees, ears that are offset on the silent in flight. In addition, an owl’s feathers can separate
sides of their head in order to pinpoint location of prey, from each other on the same wing; therefore, the air flows
the ability to control feathers on their dish-shaped face to over each of the individual feathers and their comb-like
direct sounds into their ears, and comb-like structures on structures, which maximizes how silently owls fly.
their feathers to silence them in flight. Most of these species of owls are fairly common,
Owls cannot move their eyes in their eye sockets like however, the burrowing owl is Florida’s only state-
humans and most other animals. Instead, they can rotate designated threatened species of owl. Florida Atlantic
their heads up to 270 degrees (not 360 degrees like University’s Boca Raton campus was designated as a
sometimes believed) in order to view their surroundings. burrowing owl sanctuary in 1971 and even though the
The unusually high number of light-sensitive cells in their campus has expanded, breeding pairs still exist on the
eyes, their large pupils, and a reflective layer behind the grounds.

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