Owls: Who Gives a Hoot?
Owls: Who Gives a Hoot?
Gulp
By human standards owls have terrible table manners. They usually eat small prey, like mice, in one bite. No chewing. They just gulp down the whole animal headfirst. Their beaks seem so small that it’s hard to believe how wide their mouths open. But when you look at an owl, you’re seeing just the tip of its beak. The rest is hidden by feathers.
Turning large animals into bite-sized portions takes a little longer. An owl uses the sharp edges of its beak to slice through flesh and bone and the pointy hook to rip and tear. Its beak also functions like tweezers for removing feathers, insect wings, scorpion stingers and other bits the bird doesn’t want to swallow. Whether it is eating its prey whole or in pieces, the owl often stuffs food into its mouth with one foot. If something is too big for easy swallowing, the bird jerks its head forward and back to wiggle it down. But owls aren’t complete slobs. After a messy meal, they wipe their beaks and faces, usually on a branch or tree trunk. Snowy owls often use snow for their cleanup.
When you are drawn deeply into a book from the opening pages, you know the author has expressed passion for a topic effectively. The “Introduction” to this book about owl species is an engaging invitation to learn, with recollections of Frances Backhouse’s personal experiences, from hearing owls through an open bedroom window, to her first chance to see and touch them at a banding station. If you aren’t already an owl fan, you’ll find them hard to resist after reading Owls: Who Gives a Hoot?.
Four chapters cover the topic thoroughly: basics about owls, their specialized hunting tools, lifestyle details, and conservation initiatives—the “give a hoot” part of the title. A Glossary offers concise definitions of owl-related terms, such as “crepuscular”, “duetting”, “facial disk” and “mobbing”. Resources include print, video and online references. The latter attests to the many owl study projects underway, several of which are described in the text. An Index will be included in the final copy.
The opening chapter does a great job of showing (rather than simply telling) details, using a full page chart of images for the 19 North American species that are the main focus of the book. Each species is further detailed in a small insert describing habitat, with these inserts being scattered through the book.. More illustrations highlight distinctive physical features owls share. Another small chart defines three patterns of owl activity: nocturnal, crepuscular, diurnal. I found these visuals made it easier to remember the facts.
Recognizing that most owls are hunters of the night, Chapter 2 offers a close examination of the tools and skills they use to capture prey in the dark. Night vision, 3-D vision, ease of head movements, sensitive hearing (and the truth about ear tufts), silent flight (with a tip to an online feather identification tool), talons and beaks, and diet are all described in absorbing detail: e.g. some food is stored in winter so owls may thaw “their frozen meal tucked under their breast feathers...using their own body heat!” A couple of pages are show/tell about owl pellets--how they form, their size, how ejected, what’s in them. For this last item, you’ll find a detailed discussion of how to dissect these little treasure packages.
Owl communication (calls and body language), nesting, fledging and migration comprise the third chapter. You might think ‘hoot’ would describe their voices adequately; you can add toots, trills, whistles and coos. Burrowing owls can imitate the buzz of a rattlesnake as a defensive tool. You’ll read about courtship displays, choices of nest types and locations, and about the long distance migrations of some species.
The last chapter covers threats to owls and how we can help them survive challenges like habitat loss and poisoning. Conservation projects, such as relocating burrowing owls at risk from construction, have found success: readers learn how they can volunteer, working online to monitor the new burrows. Owls are good candidates for wearing tracking devices and leg bands that monitor their travels so scientists can conserve habitat they choose. Who knew that campground outhouse ventilation pipes are death traps to birds like owls? The Port-O-Potty Owl Project installs “Poo-Poo screens” to keep them out. Several pages discuss the rescue of injured owls: what should you do if you feel an owl is in distress? How can an owl be safely taken to a wildlife rescue center? Armed with all this excellent knowledge, readers may be inspired to try finding local owls. The author explains Owling Etiquette, urging respect and responsible behavior.
Each chapter ends with a page called “Owl Allies”. These are great; they target young people involved in conservation projects. They include a US girl scout troop building barn owl boxes, South African sixth graders building owl boxes for their school playground to control a rodent infestation; a New Brunswick teen on a nocturnal owl survey; a teen volunteering at a raptor rescue center in Arizona. Many of the well-captioned colour photos throughout the book show young people at work, and the photosare nicely integrated with the text about each species.
So much is packed into this kid-friendly book in a fresh conversational writing style….e.g. burrowing owls scatter dung around their burrows, perhaps to attract beetles….”like pizza delivery where the pizza delivers itself.” You’ll come across new details, even if you already are an owl fancier. I’d never thought, for instance, that owls, since they have poor color vision, are better off dressed in camouflage than in fancy colored plumage to attract mates.
Written with expertise and up-to-date science, Owls: Who Gives a Hoot? will attract the young audience already familiar with the “Orca Wild” series as well as older readers who simply love owls.
Gillian Richardson is a freelance writer living in British Columbia.