Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Description. Barn owl in flight. The barn owl is a medium-sized, pale-coloured owl with long wings and a short, squarish tail. There is considerable size variation across the subspecies, with a typical specimen measuring about 33 to 39 cm (13 to 15 in) in overall length, with a wingspan of some 80 to 95 cm (31 to 37 in).
The American barn owl is a medium-sized, pale-coloured owl with long wings and a short, squarish tail. However, the largest bodied race of barn owl, T. f. furcata from Cuba and Jamaica, is also an island race, albeit being found on more sizeable islands with larger prey and few larger owls competing for dietary resources. [3]
Brains of an emu, a kiwi, a barn owl, and a pigeon, with visual processing areas labelled. The avian brain is the central organ of the nervous system in birds. Birds possess large, complex brains, which process, integrate, and coordinate information received from the environment and make decisions on how to respond with the rest of the body.
The barn-owl's main characteristic is the heart-shaped facial disc, formed by stiff feathers which serve to amplify and locate the source of sounds when hunting. [13] Further adaptations in the wing feathers eliminate sound caused by flying, aiding both the hearing of the owl listening for hidden prey and keeping the prey unaware of the owl.
The barn owl is a bird of open country such as farmland or grassland with some interspersed woodland, usually at altitudes below 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) but occasionally as high as 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) in the tropics. This owl prefers to hunt along the edges of woods or in rough grass strips adjoining pasture.
Ornimegalonyx. The giant Cuban owl or giant cursorial owl (Ornimegalonyx) is an extinct genus of giant owl that measured 1.1 metres (3 ft 7 in) in height. It is closely related to the many species of living owls of the genus Strix. [1] It was a flightless or nearly flightless bird and it is believed to be the largest owl that ever existed.
The larger barn owl (Tyto alba) needs a force of 30 N to release its prey, and one of the largest owls, the great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), needs a force over 130 N to release prey in its talons. [34] An owl's talons, like those of most birds of prey, can seem massive in comparison to the body size outside of flight.
For the structures in mammalian lungs, see air sac (lung). Air sacs are spaces within an organism where there is the constant presence of air. Among modern animals, birds possess the most air sacs (9–11), with their extinct dinosaurian relatives showing a great increase [clarification needed] in the pneumatization (presence of air) in their ...