Owl
Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes[1] (/ˈstrɪdʒəfɔːrmiːz/), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers adapted for silent flight. Exceptions include the diurnal northern hawk-owl and the gregarious burrowing owl.
For other uses, see Owl (disambiguation).
Owls are divided into two families: the true (or typical) owl family, Strigidae, and the barn-owl family, Tytonidae.[2] Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish. They are found in all regions of the Earth except the polar ice caps and some remote islands.
A group of owls is called a "parliament".[3]
Symbolism and mythology
Asia
In China, owls were traditionally considered to be omens of evil or misfortune. In Japan, owls are regarded as lucky,[56] although in ancient times they were associated with death.[57] In India, it is associated with bad luck.[58] In Mongolia, the owl is regarded as a benign omen. In one story, Genghis Khan was hiding from enemies in a small coppice when an owl roosted in the tree above him, which caused his pursuers to think no man could be hidden there.[59]
Hootum Pyanchar Naksha by Kaliprasanna Singha (1841–1870), first published in 1861, is a book of social commentaries influential in Bengali literature. The name literally means "Sketches by a Watching Owl".
Ancient European and modern Western culture
The modern West generally associates owls with wisdom and vigilance. This link goes back at least as far as Ancient Greece, where Athens, noted for art and scholarship, and Athena, Athens' patron goddess and the goddess of wisdom, had the owl as a symbol.[62] Marija Gimbutas traces veneration of the owl as a goddess, among other birds, to the culture of Old Europe, long pre-dating Indo-European cultures.[63]
T. F. Thiselton-Dyer, in his 1883 Folk-lore of Shakespeare, says that "from the earliest period it has been considered a bird of ill-omen," and Pliny tells us how, on one occasion, even Rome itself underwent a lustration, because one of them strayed into the Capitol. He represents it also as a funereal bird, a monster of the night, the very abomination of humankind. Virgil describes its death howl from the top of the temple by night, a circumstance introduced as a precursor of Dido's death. Ovid, too, constantly speaks of this bird's presence as an evil omen; and indeed the same notions respecting it may be found among the writings of most of the ancient poets."[64] A list of "omens drear" in John Keats' Hyperion includes the "gloom-bird's hated screech."[65] Pliny the Elder reports that owls' eggs were commonly used as a hangover cure.[66]
One of the etymologies offered for the name of the German folk hero Till Eulenspiegel is that it means "Mirror for Owls".
Attacks on humans
Although humans and owls frequently live together in harmony, there have been incidents when owls have attacked humans.[82] For example, in January 2013, a man from Inverness, Scotland suffered heavy bleeding and went into shock after being attacked by an owl, which was likely a 50-centimetre-tall (20 in) eagle-owl.[83] The photographer Eric Hosking lost his left eye after attempting to photograph a tawny owl, which inspired the title of his 1970 autobiography, An Eye for a Bird.
Eurasia:
North America:
Oceania: