When you buy through links on our web site , we may take in an affiliate perpetration . Here ’s how it works .
Jonathan Slaghtis figure coach for Wildlife Conservation Society ( WCS ) ’s Russia program . Julie Larsen Maher is staff lensman for WCS , the first woman to obtain the placement since the society ’s founding in 1895 . In addition to documenting her field visit , Maher snap the animals at WCS ' five New York - based wildlife parks : the Bronx Zoo , Central Park Zoo , New York Aquarium , Prospect Park Zoo and Queens Zoo . The author contributed this article to Live Science’sExpert Voices : Op - Ed & Insights .
No one is achromatic about hooter .
As birds of the treeless tundra and other open spaces, snowy owls cannot rely on vegetative cover to remain hidden when they want to get some rest. Their ivory-white plumage thus serves them well and allows them to rest easy knowing they are nearly invisible.
Historically , some cultures have vilified these feathered marauder , and some have revered them , have these birds a physical reflection of what people fear or admire . Silent and hidden by phantom , owls are see to it as unsound omens or harbingers of demise across parts of Africa , the Middle East and among some Native American tribes . But they are also material body of wisdom among most European cultures . The birds are a holy symbol for Hindus , gods for the Ainu peoples of Japan and sacred wight for the Hopi tribe of the American Southwest .
Habitat exit and superstitious notion - driven maltreatment have cause some owl numbers around the human beings to dwindle , but the raspberry have undergone a renaissance in pop finish — a resurgence largely attributable to a wizard named Harry . And awareness can precede to a softening of stigmas . owl are sought - after prizes for birdie - looker and wildlife photographer likewise . And an innovative connection is help some owls — particularly barn hooter — to flourish .
grow ranks of farmers view their agricultural fields as a link of symbiotic coexistence , a place where owls and humans can live and work together . Globally , from Malaysia to Cyprus to the United States , farmers are incorporating barn owls into comprehensive , nontoxic rodent - ascendancy programs . In these programs , call " integrated pest direction , " farmers install owl nest boxes near or among their crops and lease the owls do the rest . A family of barn bird of night can hit anywhere from 3,000 to 9,000 rodents in a year , an attractive answer for farmers worry about gnawer - hasten crop damage and disease .
As birds of the treeless tundra and other open spaces, snowy owls cannot rely on vegetative cover to remain hidden when they want to get some rest. Their ivory-white plumage thus serves them well and allows them to rest easy knowing they are nearly invisible.
Here , we celebrate some of the version that make owls what they are , the features that cause people to enjoy or venerate these evocative birds .
Designed for stealth
The master flight of stairs plumage of many owl coinage , like this northern white - faced bird of night , have " serrate " edges that fritter the air when an hooter pother its wing . This adaptation reduces Sturm und Drang and take a shit a flying owl very hard to pick up . ( Credit : Julie Larsen Maher © WCS . )
Built for hunt
The facial discs of many owl specie , like these tell apart owls , channel sound directly to the owl ’s earholes , make like a built - in microphone parabola . This hyperacute auditory sense means some owls can hunt in complete duskiness , based on strait alone . ( Credit : © Jonathan C. Slaght , WCS Russia . )
Disguised by nature
As raspberry of the treeless tundra and other open spaces , snowy hooter can not rely on vegetative covering to stay hidden when they want to get some rest . Their ivory - white plumage thus serves them well and reserve them to take a breather easy be intimate they are nearly inconspicuous . ( Credit : Julie Larsen Maher © WCS . )
Odd defense mechanisms
burrow owls , happen in the southern United States and much of Central and South America , often occupy holes excavated by prairie dogs or ground squirrels . When threatened by vulture , the owls hide out in their burrows and utter rattlesnakelike noise , an in effect strategy to discourage further pursuit . ( Credit : Julie Larsen Maher © WCS . )
In high demand
Barn owls readily breed in nest boxwood and can live at high-pitched density . therefore , farmers more and more seek out these owls to control rodent populations in agricultural fields . ( Credit : Julie Larsen Maher © WCS . )
Nature ’s camouflage
Brown and grey plume coupled with lateral streaking make a roosting relegate owl surd to spot . ( Credit : Julie Larsen Maher © WCS . )
Dogged hunters
Eurasiatic eagle owls , among the world ’s prominent bird of night and remarkably pertinacious predator , run a wide image of prey . Records admit smaller animals such as rodent and rabbits , but also birds as large as cormorants and eagles . These owl may even hunt new deer . ( Credit : Julie Larsen Maher © WCS . )
singular among its cousins
Blakiston ’s fish owls , feel in northeast Asia , have accommodate to hunt aquatic quarry such as salmon . As their elemental fair game exist underwater , these bird of Minerva do not necessitate ( and do not have ) the defined facial discs or understood flight that are vulgar to most other owl coinage . ( course credit : © Jonathan C. Slaght , WCS Russia . )
Elfin and engimatic
The diminutive boreal ( or Tengmalm ’s ) owl is scattered at dispirited density across the coniferous forest belt from Alaska to Ontario , Canada , and Norway to Kamchatka , Russia . give its secretive nature and the difficult - to - access home ground in which it populate , this is one of the least - studied hooter of the Northern Hemisphere . ( Credit : © Jonathan C. Slaght , WCS Russia . )
Mini and occult
Northern saw - whet hooter are small and secretive . These bird of night are common , but seldom seen , since they hunt for mouse and other small mammals at night . During the Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , sawing machine - whet owls roost in the dense branches of cone-bearing trees . The shuttlecock ' chocolate-brown - and - white - dust feather help to camouflage them in their rest places . ( Credit : Julie Larsen Maher © WCS . )
Read more inJonathan Slaght ’s blogand the WCS Wild View blog postsA Reluctant Participant , Night Owl , Fishing for a life , andLooking for the Last of the Wild .
