Owls are animals that we all know but feel strange to us, and they come out day and night, and their calls are somewhat frightening. It is precisely because of this sense of mystery that people have a feeling of dislike for the owl, and in various literary works, the image of the owl is negative, and seems to represent the occurrence of bad luck and tragedy.
Owls that prey on voles
Even modern people who have undergone scientific education do not like owls, and most people's understanding of them stops at the fact that they are beneficial birds that prey on voles. Compared with popular birds such as swallows, magpies, and eagles, owls are very inconspicuous.
Owls like to haunt at night, their main food source is voles, owls eat a lot of food, especially in the stage of raising pups, an owl can prey on voles within a range of more than a dozen miles, with the protection of owls, voles can hardly flood, is an indispensable and important link in ecological agriculture.
Owls prey on small birds
Of course, owls do not only prey on voles, their diet is very extensive, in addition to agricultural pests such as mice and insects, many small birds, pheasants and other small and medium-sized birds are also within their hunting range. Due to their extremely strong night vision ability, the success rate of owls hunting at night is almost 100%.
Practice hunting among owls
The owl is an efficient aerial killer, thanks to its unique conditions, in addition to excellent night vision ability, sharp claws comparable to eagles and more flexible reaction ability than cats, undoubtedly increase the probability of success of its hunting. In addition, owls have been practicing hunting skills since their infancy, and hunting practice is often practiced among young owls.
Although the owl looks cute, it is actually a bird of prey, even the sky overlord at the top of the food chain, and even the eagle is often their underdog, or even a source of food.
Owls hunt eagles
Night is a time for many animals to rest, limited by visual conditions, and even eagles have a weak defense ability at night. The owl is just the opposite, in the night combat power increased sharply, if you use the fighter jet metaphor, the daytime owl can only be regarded as a third-generation aircraft, at night, the owl will be upgraded to a fifth-generation aircraft.
Owls at night are the deserving overlords of the sky, and they can fly over cliffs and lock their eyes on large prey. Among them, the larger owls, such as eagle owls, can easily hunt eagles.
The owl hunted the eagle a second time in the same nest
Video records show that an eagle owl hunted and killed four adult eagles in the nest of the same eagle for more than a month. In April, a pair of eagles were preyed upon by eagle owl, and by May, another pair of eagles had once again occupied the ownerless lair, who knew that they had become prey for eagle owl again.
Of course, for owls, sneak attacks at night are somewhat unscathed. But even in head-to-head combat, owls often have an advantage.
Red-tailed hawks and owls face each other
An owl with a predatory vole was flying towards its nest, when a red-tailed eagle flew from a distance, intending to snatch the owl's prey, and it raided from the back, but when it approached the owl, it was still spotted by the owl, and the owl confronted the red-tailed eagle with a sharp ninety-degree turn.
The red-tailed hawk was beaten away
The owl's swift reaction startled the red-tailed hawk, which saw that it was not an easy target to deal with, and hurriedly turned and flew downward, this wise move saved its life, fortunately the owl had prey in its mouth, otherwise the red-tailed hawk would have been doomed.
Owls prey on golden eagles
If the red-tailed eagle is smaller than the owl, then the size of the golden eagle belongs to the top level, as the most majestic existence in the sky, the golden eagle can be said to be deeply loved and worshiped by people. But in front of the eagle owl, the golden eagle was also beaten and fled.
For larger owls, birds that are smaller or comparable to them are considered their prey. Using agile flying skills, the owl, like the cat, can quietly reach the side of the prey, and the huge owl appears behind the eagle without warning, and when it extends its claws, the eagle is still unaware.
In the duel between the owl and the eagle, the owl can be said to be victorious, during the day they can avoid the battle, and at night, even the most powerful eagle is not the opponent of the owl.
Ancient giant owl
Why are owls so brave? This has to start from its heritage, in ancient times, the owl was once one of the largest birds, up to a meter tall, is a unique sky overlord, and can even prey on large beasts, eagles can only be counted as one of the snacks on their recipes.
Giant owl
Due to environmental changes and changes in food, only some of the miniaturized branches of ancient giant owls have survived, forming modern owls, the largest of which is the eagle owl, which is also the protagonist of various preying eagle works.
Owls attack tigers
Ancient giant owls can prey on bears and tigers and other beasts, and although modern owls do not have this strength, their courage is still good, even in the face of tigers, there are owls who dare to face them directly. An owl actually attacked the tiger, but the tiger did not fight back, it may be a little confused, which may be one of the few birds that dares to pluck the hair on the tiger's mouth.
Owls scratch hounds
Fighting tigers is obviously a bit difficult for owls. But in the face of canines, owls are not good stubble, an owl is eating prey, disturbed by a dog, the owl mistakenly thought that the other party was coming to grab food, decisively launched a counterattack, it used its claws to penetrate the skin on the nose of the hound, the painful hound fled.
Owls prey on wildcats
In the face of hounds, owls can only drive away opponents, but for cats, owls are terrible animals, even if cats are known for their quick reflexes, but in the face of more flexible owls, cats often can only become prey.
Crows bully owls
So the owl seems terrible, and no animal can subdue it? The answer, of course, is no, that one thing descends from one thing is a law of nature, and even the chief eagle owl in the owl fears one animal, and that is the crow. Crows are the most intelligent animals among birds, and while they are not the opponents of owls when they fight alone, they can annoy owls and choose to dodge.
Owls are very skilled at hunting, but they are very casual in nesting.
The owl's burrow is derived from a vole
Owls never build their own nests, and their nest sources usually come from their prey. Moreover, according to local conditions, it can reproduce well in different environments in many parts of the world.
Spearheads prey on marmots
On the grasslands, owls tend to prey on marmots, and the groundhogs have wide burrows, and after eating the marmots, the owls will breed in their burrows.
The owl's hole in the ground
Owls don't pay much attention to breeding holes, and they often change their nesting sites, sometimes rabbit holes, sometimes mouse holes.
An owl in a rabbit hole
Owls in the forest prefer to live in tree holes, and a squirrel is driven out of the tree holes, and the owl occupies its tree holes. In fact, for squirrels, it is lucky, because most squirrels have become the prey of owls in the same situation.
The owl that drives the squirrel out of the tree hole
The owl does not bother to find a nest, and during the breeding season, when it finds a suitable nest, it will be encroached upon, and the owl seizes the osprey's nest and eats the osprey's cubs.
An owl that captures an osprey's lair
As for the tree holes of other birds, they are all in the choice of owls, their environmental requirements are not high, as long as the tree holes suitable for raising offspring, they can be taken over and used by them, sometimes woodpecker tree holes, sometimes other animal tree holes.
Owl's tree hole
In the high mountains, owls also have habitats, and they will seize some deep and open-view caves, which are often obtained after driving away eagles.
Owls cave on mountain rocks
Owls look cute, but in fact they are very fierce birds of prey, the kings of the sky.
Owls are also a type of eagle, they are sleepy during the day, but at night, they are the top birds of prey, the real killer of birds.