Of all the existing owls, house owls are the most common. They live in western Europe, North Africa and South Asia and create nests on the plains, in the mountains, whose height sometimes reaches 3, 000 meters. In the north, birds love flat landscapes, and in the south they prefer steppes, deserts and semi-deserts. The number of these birds is very large, and in places it is simply huge.
Description
House owls are somewhat distinguished from other species in several ways. They differ from the scoop with slightly feathered fingers, and they do not have “ears”, from the sparrow owl in size, and from the boreal owl in dense plumage and variegated longitudinal feathers on the head.
The color is a little brown, with a touch of olive. Claws are dark, brown. Bill is a little yellowish. The bird has a special look - it looks as if from underneath with its large yellow eyes.
Dimensions
These birds are not so small in size. The house owl, whose photo you see in the article, weighs about 160-180 grams, its body length is 23-28 cm, its wings are 15-18 cm, and their wingspan is 57-64 cm.
As a rule, there are gender differences; females are slightly larger than males. Having met, two birds create a constant pair and are together, even if the breeding season has not come. They arrange nesting places themselves, sometimes digging up small holes or laying eggs in burrows, in different buildings, cliffs.
House Owls: Breeding
The breeding season begins in April or late March, it depends on the habitat of the owl. In one clutch there are only four or five eggs, but there are eight. The female hatch them for about a month. When the chicks turn four weeks old, they fly away from the nest. They reach adult sizes at the age of one and a half months. For some time, the grown chicks stick together until they find a mate.
Food
An owl is a nocturnal bird of prey, but sometimes it happens that it flies out to hunt at dusk. Its diet includes various rodents, lizards, worms, even frogs and reptiles, insects and small birds. However, if an owl sees a rodent, it will not even pay attention to other prey located next to it. This bird catches mainly mice or field voles. These are the food preferences.
The brown owl, the photo of which is presented in our article, has strong clawed paws. This allows him to hunt animals more than their own weight without harming themselves. In the deserts, gerbils and large jerboas are often victims of owls. In the burrows that remain after the rodents caught by this bird of prey, they rest, and it happens that they arrange their nest there. It turns out that they occupy someone else's housing and take tribute from the owners of the home. House owls deserve praise from humans. All because they destroy the pests of our agriculture.
In addition to house owls, there are other types of birds of prey in the owl family. And we will consider them now.
Boreal owl
This bird has a large and wide head, on which there are small feather ears. The owl's eyes are small, the beak is weak, yellow, wings are long (15-19 cm) and wide, the tail is short. Feet covered with thick feathers. The length of his body is 21-27 cm, weight - about 1200 grams. The borefoot females, as well as house owls, are larger than males. The color is grayish, it is brown, with streaks on the neck and nape. Abdomen is white with a longitudinal brown pattern.
Boreal owls are common in the mountains and on the plains of coniferous forests in Asia, Europe and North America. They also live in Russia, the Caucasus, the Alps, Western China, and the Balkans. This is a sedentary bird species. Northern birds lead a daytime lifestyle, and in the south they are mostly nocturnal.
The breeding season begins in mid-April. The female lays four to six white eggs in one clutch. Hatch them for more than a month. The nesting period lasts approximately thirty days. They arrange their homes in the hollows of large trees. They prey mainly on small rodents, but can feast on insects and small birds.
Sparrow owl
As you already understood, the family of owls is very diverse, and males have fewer females. And this species is no different from others. However, they are slightly smaller in size than the above birds. The body length of the bird is 15-18 cm, the wings are 9-11 cm, and their wingspan is 35-40 cm. These small owls weigh 60-80 grams. The feathers are brownish with a grayish tint and white speckles. Their claws are black and their beak is yellowish. Fingers are covered with thick feathers.
Sparrow owl mainly lives in the coniferous forests of North Asia and Europe. In Russia, it can be seen in Arkhangelsk, on the Kola Peninsula, in Siberia and Sakhalin, as well as in Altai, Ryazan Oblast, and Transbaikalia. This species is also sedentary. Owls arrange their nests mainly in birches and aspen. The number of eggs laid depends on the abundance of feed. In Russia, owls most often lay two or three eggs of white color, and in Europe - from four to six, sometimes even seven. The breeding season begins in late April. But the grown chicks can be found in August.
Nutrition and Hunting
Hunting for detectives takes place during the day and at dusk, as well as at dawn. The diet of these small predators mainly includes rodents (lemmings, hamsters, mice, both forest and house animals), and they also do not mind tasting shrews. Insects are also very fond of, but this delicacy is better suited for older chicks. By the way, it is very characteristic for them that they stock up food, especially in the winter. But the birds keep the collected food in their hollows.
Elf
According to the description, this bird is very similar to a sparrow owl. Only this detective is just tiny, as its body size is only 12-14 cm. Despite this, it has a rather large head, but weak claws and a beak. This is probably due to the fact that he eats only small invertebrates. His wings are rounded. The color, like all other owls, is gray-brown with white marks. Claws and beak are pale brown.
An elf sych is a sedentary bird. Lives in the desert regions of the USA and Mexico. It arranges its nests at a height of two or more meters, and only in the hollows of saguaro cacti, which hollow out woodpeckers. It even happens that several different birds live on the same plant, including owls. In one clutch there are from two to five eggs, but most often only three. This is a nocturnal bird of prey, which hunts only in the dark and eats exclusively insects.
Rabbit owl
No matter how strange it may sound, but it is a species of bird - land. They inhabit only the open spaces of America, Canada and Argentina. In the afternoon, birds sit in their minks and rarely fly out to hunt. Their flight is very low, literally above the ground. But in the air they are almost impossible to see, mostly they run on their long legs. They make their nests in holes that mammals have left. In length, their home can reach four meters. Owls settle in groups that are located close to each other. Their nesting season runs from March to August. The number of eggs in one clutch can be from two to eleven. Hatch their offspring for about four weeks. And, by the way, the male at this time is in a hole next to the one where the female sits on the eggs.
This species of owls has a very interesting color - reddish-brown-gray, with specks. Eye color is yellow. Beak is greenish-pale gray, legs are the same color, only the sole is yellowish. The length of these birds is only 23 cm, and the wings are 16 cm, but in the range of all 50. The tail is very short, only 7 cm.
Since they live exclusively on earth, or rather, in the earth, they are very susceptible to various dangers. Therefore, so that they could protect themselves and their offspring, Mother Nature endowed them with an interesting voice. They make sounds like rattlesnake crackling. Thus, they earned the nickname in everyday life "owl - a rattlesnake." It is also the only owl of its kind that lives on the surface of the earth and has an interesting habit of craning its neck to explore the surroundings.
They feed not only on small rodents and birds, but also on fruits and various cactus seeds.
This species is on the verge of extinction due to the fact that its representatives settle in burrows located in the ground. Every year their number decreases, the species requires restoration and protection.
