Superb Owl Sunday

Did you know Superbowl Sunday is also Superb Owl Sunday?! Here are some photos of some of the superb owls in Lutherlyn’s Discovery Room in the Environmental Education Center! The Discovery Room has great horned owls, screech owls, and a long-eared owl, and they have some pretty amazing adaptations that make them such effective nocturnal avian predators.

Screech owls are among the smallest and most common Pennsylvania owls.
They may be gray (known gray phase) or reddish-brown (known as red phase).

Their most common call sounds like a high-to-low-pitch whinny, but they also 

make a series of repeated trills or short whines. 

Great horned owls are the largest owls in Pennsylvania.
The "horns" in their name are actually tufts of feathers near the top of their head. 

Feather tufts on owls are likely a camouflage feature, helping owls to look 

more like the shape of the branches they perch among in trees. 

Long-eared owls are a little smaller than great-horned owls,
this time their tufts are called "ears" and their tufts are the longest of any PA owls. 
The ears of an owl are actually much lower on the head than the tufts,
to the side of the eyes, and are covered by feathers.
The disk of feathers around the eye helps direct sound towards the owls' ears. 

The feathers around an owl's eyes also directs light into their eyes, 

 which are very large. Both these features enhance their night-time vision.

Owls can't turn their heads around a full 360 degrees, but they can turn very far.
This combined with their wide-set but forward-facing eyes
gives them a large range of vision.

An owl's talons are very sharp, strong, and curved, perfect for grabbing prey. 
Their legs and toes are covered with fine fluffy feathers, 

which helps keeps them silent while flying. 

Owls have these fine sound-cancelling feathers on their wings and bodies as well. 

On this Superb Owl Sunday, take some time to appreciate what wonderful unique creatures owls are, and the many features that make them so special. Maybe if you have a chance to spend time some time outside near a forested area at dusk or after dark you'll get to hear or even see some of these superb friends.