In the moments preceding the sighting of an owl, there is a sense of intuition that washes over us. I will always remember one night in suburban Sydney when I stood on a balcony and all the creatures in the surrounding bushland came to a sudden halt. Even the frogs seemed to quiet down. Who was there? Within seconds, a powerful owl native to Australia landed on the railing, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin. The owl was about the size of a terrier, floating effortlessly like a day-old Mylar balloon, and eerily silent to my ears. In the absolute silence, it gracefully moved along the railing without a sound. I couldn’t even hear its talons touch the metal. I was aware that the owl had such acute hearing that it could hear a possum’s heartbeat beneath its fur. Unseen, a second owl, presumably its mate, let out a deep hoot that resonated like a woodwind instrument.
The calls of owls often have a ghostly or indistinct quality. They possess a dual enchantment: they make us question our own senses while captivating us with the mysteries of their own. Of the approximately 260 owl species that roam the night, dusk, and occasionally the daylight, many are expertly camouflaged and equipped with feathers that dampen their cries, making it difficult to pinpoint their origin. The young of some owl species have been practicing these skills for a long time. Great horned owls find their voice while still curled up inside their moon-shaped eggs. Once they puncture the small air cell within the egg’s membrane with their developing beaks, they inflate their lungs and start chirping. Each owl resides within its own private universe, with the confinement growing tighter as they grow larger. If spectral sounds are associated with the afterlife, what word could capture the babbling of embryonic life, the sounds of beings too delicate to emerge from their shells?
The otherworldly aura of owls, with their mournful calls that seem to echo through the atmosphere, has given birth to human superstitions. Their ethereal calls become shorthand for sinister events. However, owls have also inspired a completely different response. In ancient times, they were occasionally depicted as “human-headed birds.” Their round heads, wide-set eyes (which provide them with binocular vision), and flat facial profile—unique among their biological class—resemble human faces. Whether the myth of wise owls being thoughtful, even philosophical, creatures arose from this likeness alone is difficult to say.
Perhaps it originated from an understanding that owls are most active after nightfall, at the end of the typical workday, a time for repose and contemplation. Or maybe it was their sensitivity to stimuli beyond human perception that suggested an unfathomable knowledge and shrewd intelligence needed to navigate the darkness. Either way, owls have long been seen as a categorical anomaly in a world where being called “birdbrained” is an insult.
Owls have recently captured the attention of science writers and ornithologists, who are eager to uncover the birds’ acute senses, their presence in diverse environments (except Antarctica), and the intricate relationships in between. Leigh Calvez, in her best-selling book “The Hidden Lives of Owls: The Science and Spirit of Nature’s Most Elusive Birds,” delves into the owls of the Pacific Northwest, sharing her thrilling nocturnal explorations of their biology and behavior. She covers a range of species, from the tiny saw-whet owl to the imposing great grey owl, also known as the “Phantom of the North.” Conservationist Jonathan C. Slaght has dedicated years to studying Blakiston’s fish owl, a majestic bird with a six-foot wingspan. In his book “Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl,” Slaght combines scientific research with adventurous expeditions to track this “floppy goblin” with electric-yellow eyes in the ice-covered Primorye region of eastern Russia.
Two new additions to the exploration of owls forge a closer connection between these birds and humans, while maintaining a cautious distance from fully domesticating their mysterious nature. In “The Wise Hours: A Journey Into the Wild and Secret World of Owls,” poet and nature writer Miriam Darlington warns against trivializing these birds, as their big, forward-facing eyes can easily be seen as cute rather than profound. She refers to the owl of meme culture, omnipresent in viral YouTube, Tumblr, and TikTok posts, as well as fan art and video game avatars. Online, owls are portrayed as whimsical humanoid creatures, far removed from their enigmatic counterparts that cry out in the starlit woods. Darlington believes that this trend robs nature of its essential wildness.
Nevertheless, Darlington doesn’t shy away from using owls for therapeutic purposes. When her adult son falls ill, she incorporates the birds into her personal journey as they become symbols of her anxieties. They serve as daunting creatures that externalize her fears, allowing her either to escape them or confront them head-on.
Jennifer Ackerman, renowned among birders for her books on avian intelligence, provides a more pragmatic assessment of owls and their worship in “What an Owl Knows: The New Science of the World’s Most Enigmatic Birds.” Ackerman examines owls in diverse locations, from suburban areas in Brazil to forests in Montana and rehabilitation centers in Minnesota. She investigates how smart owls truly are and questions why they have become symbols of a supernatural world beyond our own.
Recent studies in ornithological cognition have revealed astonishing findings about the intelligence of birds. Despite lacking a layered cerebral cortex, several avian species demonstrate complex memory, logic, recognition, and even mathematical abilities. Corvids like crows, rooks, and ravens are known for their tool use, problem-solving, and rituals around the dead. American crows gather around deceased birds of their own kind, emitting loud caws, and later avoid food found in the area. Pinyon jays remember thousands of hiding spots for their seeds. European magpies pass the mirror test, recognizing themselves as individuals. Some parrots surpass mere mimicry in their language skills. Even pigeons, often dismissed as automatons, can match primates in counting ability, ordering arrays of objects.
Ackerman aims to uncover where owls stand in comparison to these brilliant birds. Owls have relatively large brains in proportion to their body size, likely due to their provision of food to their offspring. Owl nestlings rely on adults to supply them with energy until they can hunt or scavenge themselves. However, the intellectual prowess of owls mostly lies in their senses rather than their cognitive abilities.
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