The difference between an owl and an owl is external. The difference between an owl and an owl

15.01.2018 07:36 994

Owl and owl are very similar to each other. Both birds are predators and are nocturnal. Outwardly, these birds also have much in common, since they belong to the same order - owls. In both birds, the eyes do not move, but the head can turn 180 degrees. A the world they see in black and white.

But still, the owl and the owl have some differences. For example, in size, an owl is larger than an owl. On average, it weighs about 4 kg, and an owl 2 kg. In addition, the eagle owl has peculiar ears made of feathers on its head. In an owl, unlike an eagle owl, a facial disc is noticeable (that is, the muzzle has a round shape). The plumage of an owl is monophonic, and an eagle owl is brighter. On his head and in the upper back there are longitudinal stripes, which can be of different colors depending on the habitat of the eagle owl.

The diet of an owl and an owl is also different. Since the eagle owl is larger, its prey is not small either. Hares, hedgehogs, pheasants and even roe deer become its victims. The owl preys on small rodents and insects. Both birds also eat fish. The owl does not see well in daylight, so it goes hunting only at night. Well, an owl can hunt not only at night, but also during the day.

The flight of an owl is accompanied by various sounds similar to a whistle, and an owl flies silently. This is because the owl's wings are pointed at the ends, while the owl's, on the contrary, are smoother.

Oddly enough, but most people do not even know how an owl differs from an owl. Both birds are included in the order of predators and the family of owls, where only 27 genera are distinguished. To figure out how to distinguish two related birds from each other, we decided to collect and combine useful information. In the article you will find answers to all questions regarding two sharp-sighted hunters.

The bird differs from related birds with a large head and round huge eyes. Her feathers are thick, soft, the tail is rectangular in shape, and the wings, on the contrary, are semicircular. The beak is curved towards the end, the nostrils are located close to the muzzle. As for the paws, they are short, so owls prefer open areas than dense forests. Body weight and length (20-40 cm) are in perfect harmony with the legs, which allows the bird to fly smoothly.

The color of the owl has camouflage motifs, which helps it to remain invisible in the environment. The color of the feathers of individuals living in the forest is predominantly brown, with a gray tint, in desert birds it is light with rust, but the famous snowy owl is a carrier of snow-white feathers.

Surprisingly, the female is much larger than the male, and their body color is the same. This phenomenon is rarely present in birds.

External characteristics of the owl

Eagle owls belong to the order of owls and are their largest representatives. The wingspan of an adult can reach two meters, when an owl has an average of 80 cm. Body length 70-80 cm, weight 2-3 kg. Female eagle owls always weigh more than males. A few more features:

• Eagle owl feathers vary depending on the habitat.
• The Siberian owl, like the snowy owl, is white.
• Forest - dark red or golden with shades of beige.
• Steppe individuals are yellow, resembling red clay in color.

A special feature of all owls are the legs and ears. Unlike owls, the paws are covered with a thick layer of feathers, and dark feathers stick out on top of their heads, resembling lynx ears.

Owl and owl menu: what are the differences

The eagle owl and the owl are birds of prey, but the latter hunt exclusively at night, their daytime vision is poorly developed. For their diet, they choose mice and other small rodents, birds. Their menu also includes insects and fish.

With an owl, everything is much more interesting. Being a large representative, he is able to overwhelm a falcon, raven, pheasant and even a medium-sized mammal. Gloomy feathered is able to hunt in the daytime. In the diet of an eagle owl, you can find hares, hedgehogs, turtles, snakes, frogs. In general, the food of the feathered predator is very diverse, there are about a hundred species of mammals and many birds.

Habitats and features of flight

Despite the large body weight, the owl flies silently and smoothly. What does plumage affect? On the wings of the bird there are steering and flight feathers that do not have a gun. The shape of the wing also affects the flight: round, with a special bend that reduces friction between the feathers. Due to this, owls can soar in the air without making sounds.

The eagle owl does not have such features in the structure of wings and plumage, so in the sky it makes characteristic sounds resembling a whistle.

An owl is found anywhere on the planet, except for Antarctica and the North Pole. For the construction of houses, birds choose steppes, mountains, northern tundras, forests, and rarely swampy areas.

Owl so often to meet quite difficult. It mainly lives on the Eurasian continent, its range is located from the northern to the Sea of ​​Okhotsk. The predator is not afraid of people, but unlike the owl, it rarely settles in cities. Nests are often found in rock gorges, lonely hollows and burrows, among stones or hills.

The difference between the nesting method and the attitude towards people

Owls never build nests on their own, they drive out the owners and settle in their house. Sometimes a bird chooses abandoned bird dwellings without even updating or completing them.

The Ural Owl, a member of the owl family, often chooses man-made artificial owls, roofs, and attics of residential buildings.

The eagle owl does not need a nest at all. He chooses a hole in the ground, does not lay out bedding, does not carry branches, but simply lays eggs there. In rare cases, a predator may occupy an abandoned nest.

It happens that people try to tame an eagle owl in order to train and take it with them on a hunt, but the character of a bird rarely lends itself to human commands.

Owl family: owl, owl and eagle owl

The owl belongs to the owl order, but has significant differences from the owl and owl:

• The length of the owl does not exceed 30 centimeters.
• The weight is small - only 200 grams.
• The head, in comparison with an owl, is not round, but flattened.
• The eyes are fixed in the sockets, so they always stand straight. The special structure of the neck allows you to rotate your head 135 degrees.
• The feathers are dark, a gray tint predominates.
• On the face, characteristic bright concentric circles are visible, diverging to the sides.
• Ears, in comparison with the eagle owl, are absent, but there is a beard of dark fluffy feathers.

There are many types of owls in nature, but we presented the most important differences between an owl and an eagle owl here. If you liked the article, share it with your friends, put likes and write your thoughts in the comments.

From time immemorial, owls have been credited with a special role in the relationship between wildlife and the other world. The nocturnal lifestyle of these feathered predators, the peculiarities of their behavior and appearance in everyday consciousness are often associated with mystical forces and strange phenomena. There is an opinion that an eagle owl appears near human habitation as a harbinger of misfortune, and an owl, on the contrary, protects the owners of the house from all sorts of troubles.

It is unlikely that such a mythologized idea of ​​​​the species differences between owls and eagle owls can be considered convincing. They are not similar in other, purely morphological characters, type of behavior and method of hunting.

Both those and others belong to the order of owls, which unites more than 400 species of birds that live in different climatic zones from the north of Europe and America to the southern borders of the African continent and the coast of Australia.

But the eagle owl differs from its numerous relatives by its impressive size and is considered a real giant among owls. Adults weigh up to 4.5 kg and reach a length of 72 cm. The wingspan of an eagle owl can be from one and a half to two meters. The female is much larger than the male: the difference in their weight can exceed one and a half kg.

The eagle owl, like all owls, has a large round head, but its plumage has its own characteristics. In the area of ​​​​the auditory openings, short stiff feathers form a kind of auricles. All owls have excellent hearing, and feather ears allow the eagle owl to perceive sounds in a range that exceeds the sound perception of mammals by about 4 times.

The plumage of the owl has a reddish-fawn color; Longitudinal dark stripes are clearly visible on the head and upper back. This combination of colors makes the bird hardly noticeable in its habitats during the daytime, and at dusk and at night it allows it to be practically invisible while hunting. A strong hook-like beak and sharp claws, as if sharpened at both ends, help the eagle owl to hold the victim and cope not only with small rodents, but also with larger prey: hares, roe deer and even young mountain goats.

Unlike most owls, which hunt only at night, the eagle owl is able to get food during the day: it has sharp eyesight and can fly quite high in flight to find suitable prey. Most often these are capercaillie, partridges, pheasants, field mice - inhabitants of sparse forest thickets and open areas in the forest-steppe and steppe zone. In such places, it is easier for the eagle owl to hunt because of the wingspan.

Of all the owls, the most similar to the eagle owl has long-eared owl. This species has the same type of head plumage, the shape of the wing, tail and body. However, even with such similarity, the long-eared owl is not a reduced copy of the eagle owl. It has a dull color of feathers and a bright orange iris, while in the eagle owl in the dark the eyes appear red, and the feathers shimmer in daylight. The absence of feather ears is not the only feature that distinguishes other owls from the eagle owl. characteristic feature many of them have a stiff corolla of short feathers framing the front of the head; the owl does not have it. The feathers on the wings of ordinary owls have rounded ends and are softly serrated on the outside. This makes their flight noiseless and allows the birds to literally glide along the surface of the earth. The flapping of the owl's wings in flight produces a distinctly audible whistling sound, since its flight feathers are stiffer and do not have a fringed edge along the edges.

Findings site

1. The eagle owl differs from other species of owls in its large size and characteristic head plumage. Feather ears, except for the eagle owl, are found only in the long-eared owl.
2. In most owls, the front of the head is framed by a halo of stiff short feathers. The eagle owl does not have a facial disc.
3. Owls fly silently. The wings of an eagle owl make whistling sounds in flight.
4. Owls prey on small animals. The prey of the eagle owl can be a large hare or a young roe deer.

Owl is a prominent representative of the family birds of prey order of owls. This bird has a good hunting instinct and excellent hearing.

The life of a night robber is mysterious and many-sided, he is credited with extraordinary vigilance and at the same time complete blindness. In the dark, this bird determines the place of its prey with absolute accuracy and purposefully attacks its prey.

Appearance

The eagle owl bird has a “barrel-shaped” massive build, rich buffy and reddish loose plumage, eyes with an iris of bright orange color, framed by long tufts of feathers.

What does an owl look like:

1. The length of an individual depends on the place of residence and varies in the range of 65-71 cm, the weight can reach 4 kg, the wingspan is on average from 150 to 175 cm. For example, the virgin eagle owl from North America rarely exceeds 2 kg in weight.
2. The color plumage is usually buff with prominent markings on the neck, chest and black streaked pattern.
3. Usually females are larger than males.
4. The head has good mobility, the rotation can be 360 ​​degrees.
5. The predator flies quickly and silently.
6. Developed powerful paws, feathered to the tips of the claws, make it easy to grab prey and quickly move along the canopy of trees.

Life expectancy in natural conditions - 20 years or more, in captivity - up to 60 years.

A bird of prey, if necessary, is able to instantly gain high speed, catching up with its prey.

In search of food, the night predator flies smoothly above the ground, periodically alternating flights with gliding. Resting, he sits down on the ground or a tree branch, holding the body in an upright position.

The main differences from owls

The owl and eagle owl are members of the owl family. Both representatives are primarily predators leading an active night life. Also, the birds are similar in silhouettes and rounded large eyes.

What is the difference between an owl and an owl? Owl signs:

1. "Ears" of feathers on the head.
2. Feather color.
3. The size.

An important difference from owls lies in appearance. The common owl is much larger than owls and differ in weight and size.

It is easy to distinguish these birds by the presence of "ears" of feathers: the owl's head is distinguished by even plumage, while spectacularly protruding feathers are visible on the owl's head.

The common owl has a variegated color, somewhere lighter, and somewhere darker. The facial disc of a large individual may not differ in color from the body. Some have masks with black eye contours and a darkened chin.

habitats

The eagle owl and the owl are the settled inhabitants of the forest. For living and nesting, they choose hard-to-reach places with a sufficient food supply. It can be a coniferous forest, and a forest-steppe, and a taiga, and a desert, and even mountain peaks. They adapt well to various climatic conditions, withstand heat and frost.

These representatives wildlife they cannot stand the neighborhood with a person, therefore they nest in remote areas not affected by his activities.

The habitat of the winged predator is extensive: it extends over most of Eurasia, captures the northern part of Africa, and reaches the borders of South China and India.

In North America, a representative of the owl order, the virgin owl, is distributed throughout the country.

On the territory of Russia, this bird lives in the Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Saratov regions, the Komi Republic, as well as in some other regions.

Lifestyle and habits

Like all predatory owls, the eagle owl is characterized by night and twilight activity. They wait out the daylight in shelter, often alone.

What does an owl eat? Small species of owls, field rodents, birds, hedgehogs, hares, frogs, large insects become its prey, and it can also attack roe deer cubs.

The sedentary lifestyle of a feathered predator and an active hunting life make these birds the winged masters of the forest. They move well in the dark, they distinguish various noises well. An adult is able to silently approach the victim and inflict a fatal blow on it.

The robber owl frightens sleeping daytime birds with loud flapping of wings and peculiar clicks of its beak. When the frightened bird takes off, he grabs it with his claws and kills it. He does not disdain devouring chicks, completely destroying bird nests. At dawn, the predator hides in its shelter, spending the day period in satiety and slumber.

Mating season and reproduction

Eagle owls "marry" in the off-season: in early spring or autumn. For mating games and breeding offspring, they return to their old chosen places. The male lures the female with loud hooting, singing.

Usually these birds do not bother building a nest. The female simply lays her eggs in a hollow, someone else's abandoned nest, or in a hole on a rock.

The female eagle owl lays an average of 2-5 eggs. She incubates them on her own for a month, feeding on the offerings of the male. The mass of small owls reaches 50 grams.

A newborn owl chick does not leave its home during the first month of life. The mother takes care of her offspring, not leaving the cubs alone. The first hunt of a young flood begins at 20 weeks, puberty occurs at 3 years of age.

Owl and man

The owl bird has no natural enemies. Not a single predatory animal risks attacking an adult bird. Only young chicks left by their parents during the search for food fall into the risk zone.

Humans are a great danger to owls. Economic activity human leads to the death of entire families of owls.

The main cause of death of these birds is poisoning with strong chemicals that are used in the cultivation and processing of various crops.

Chemicals fall on rodents, when eating which the eagle owl receives a shock dose of toxic substances. A poisoned bird becomes lethargic and quickly dies.

Today, feathered predators are threatened with complete extinction, therefore we are especially protecting the subspecies of eagle owls, the Red Book contains it detailed description. Scientists constantly monitor the population of owl families.

Video

Watch an interesting video about a rare Far Eastern fish owl.

Before deciding how an owl, an owl and an owl differ, we will find out what each of them is, we will study their external characteristics, habits, lifestyle and behavior.

All of them are unusual nocturnal birds. In addition, they are predators and look completely different from their other feathered relatives.

So, let's find out how an owl differs from an owl and an owl.

Owl: description of external characteristics

The most distinctive sign that distinguishes an owl is its large muzzle and head with large round eyes. The beak of an owl is curved, short, with nostrils located at its very base.

The plumage of an owl is thick and soft, the wings are rounded, large, the tail is rectangular. In addition, the wings of those birds that hunt in the forest are short, while those that prefer a more open area (and more often fly) are long. But they are still large in comparison with body weight, which allows birds to fly, easily planning, silently and without much effort.

Usually, owls have a "protective" plumage color, which allows them to blend in with shades. environment and go unnoticed during the rest period during the day.

The feathers of owls living in the forests are usually brownish in hues. And owls living in deserts are distinguished by a lighter color (reddish).

Females differ from males in larger sizes, but the color of their feathers is almost the same. Only in the snowy owl, males have snow-white plumage, and females have feathers with a noticeable brownish speck.

What is the difference between an owl and an owl, consider a little lower.

Owls from the genus of owls

Owls are relatively small owls of larger build. They do not have feather ears. The bird has a well-defined black facial disc with a white border.

A short tail gives a visual misleading impression of the wings - they seem longer than they really are. The legs are feathered differently different forms owls: in the southern ones, their fingers are covered with bristles, in the northern ones, plumage is present to the very claws.

Under the beak they have a black spot resembling a beard, framed by white, horizontally elongated spots. The ridges between the eyes are light gray, in the form of eyebrows (crescent shape), located from the beak towards the inside of the facial disc. The pupils are black, the eye iris is yellow. The eyes are small, the beak is yellow.

Among them occasionally (eastern populations) there are completely black birds, in which bright yellow eyes are clearly distinguished on the facial disk.

The females are larger than the males and are indistinguishable in color.

The owl differs from the owl in a brighter and more saturated gray color, bright, clearly defined facial disc with many concentric circles, with a "beard", the absence of "ears", medium-sized yellow eyes, a darker color.

Beautiful bird owl. What is the difference between an owl and an owl in appearance?

The eagle owl is an unusually attractive bird. This is a larger owl, with a wingspan of which their length reaches from 150 to 170 centimeters, and the length of each wing is up to 50 centimeters. Its weight is about 2 kg.

Adult birds have a rusty yellow coloration, densely mottled with brownish blackish hues.

Her eyes are reddish-yellow, her beak is dark, one might say black. On the sides of his head are tufts of feathers that form something like ears (nothing to do with real ears). Both females and males have the same coloration.

What is the difference between an owl and an owl: photo

The common eagle owl is a species of birds of prey from the order of owls. Owl and eagle owl are different species.

Each of the birds of the order of owls has its own characteristics.

What is the difference between an owl and an owl? Firstly, there are more owls than owls.

1. The owl is much smaller than the eagle owl, and it does not have feather ears like the first one (except for the long-eared owl species).

2. Most owls have a rim of short hard feathers on the front of the head, which is absent in the eagle owl.

3. Owls fly very silently and glide easily, and the eagle owl's wings produce audible whistling sounds during the flight.

4. An owl hunts, as a rule, for smaller animals, and a large hare or even a young roe deer can turn out to be prey for an eagle owl.

habitats

The eagle owl is the most widespread species of owl.

What is the difference between an owl and an owl in terms of habitats?

The eagle owl is a bird that can adapt to the most diverse and unpredictable conditions of existence. It can be found in the Ussuri region in dense forests, and in the polar forests on the Mezen, and in Altai in the mountain taiga, and in the Ukrainian steppes, and in the deserts of Mongolia.

It can also live in the Tien Shan mountains, in the eastern Pamirs and in Tibet (even at an altitude of up to 4,000 m above sea level). Eagle owl perfectly takes root anywhere and endures any weather conditions.

Owls also live in territories of almost the entire world, from the very equator to the harsh cold northern territories. You can find them everywhere: on the shores of the seas, in the mountains, in deserts, in the steppes. Most of this species of birds lives in forests (and woodlands).

Not many of them (for example, a marsh owl) prefer more spacious open places. And some of the owls, unlike the eagle owls, willingly settle in settlements under the roofs and in the attics of houses. You can see them in the park areas of cities. This is another of the points that distinguishes an owl from an owl.

It is important to note about eagle owls that people sometimes use them as a bird of prey, but there is one minus in this - this bird is difficult to train. Eagle eagle is a rarity. Moreover, there are often extremely dangerous attacks of birds on their owners if they are improperly kept and raised.