From the title, you may think this is a story about one of your neighbor’s illegal night hunting activities; but no, this is actually a story about a bird that does most of its flying and hunting at night.

We’re used to seeing all kinds of birds flitting or moving about throughout the day; songbirds of all kinds, eagles, ospreys, hawks of all types, and even game birds like doves, turkeys, and grouse. However, there is one bird that most of us seldom ever see, and that is an owl. The reason we seldom ever see them is that they remain perched through the day and then become active after dark searching for prey.

Hawks may rule the daylight hours, but owls rule the darkness of the night, and that’s because they are well adapted to finding and capturing prey quickly and efficiently in the darkness. Take vision, for example; owls’ extremely large retinas make their vision 50-100 times more efficient than a human’s vision. Their retinas also have more rods and thus gather more light for better night vision. Owls have excellent depth perception, and some species can twist their necks almost all the way around, covering a large area with little movement.

When it comes to hearing, owls are again well equipped; an owl’s head is large and broad with two widely spaced, well-developed ears that enable the owl to hear sounds well below that of a human. The owl’s highly developed hearing makes it possible to capture prey in the dark of night with hearing alone.

If these highly developed features were not enough, the owl is also endowed with specialized wings for silent flying. The leading parts of an owl’s wings have soft, serrated edges that cut the air when the bird flies; this feature and the large, lightweight wing surface allow an owl to fly and glide in total silence. No noisy wing-flapping makes the capture of prey more effective.

Finally, an owl is equipped with a pair of strong, sharp talons that can easily grip prey, especially small prey that may be swallowed whole, or if necessary, the sharp beak is used to dissect the prey before swallowing. After digestion, the indigestible remains are regurgitated in the form of round pellets often found under roosts or nighttime feeding locations.

There are eight species of owls that either live in Pennsylvania or visit our state in the winter. Barn, screech, great horned, barred, and long-eared owls are year-round residents, while the short-eared owl is a winter resident. The saw-whet owl may make a rare winter appearance, as does the large white snowy owl. Several years ago, our area was treated to some snowy owl visits, and I was fortunate to spot a couple of different ones that winter.

A number of years ago, I was perched up a tree in archery season when suddenly and quietly, a large great horned owl landed on a limb on the other side of the tree trunk where I was perched. I’m sure the owl had no idea I was there, and for a brief moment, I had a real close up staring encounter.

I have also had the opportunity to be called out to someone’s barn where they spotted a barn owl up in the rafters but other than those few rare encounters getting a good, clear look at an owl is something that seldom happens. Owls are hardly considered rare, but when it gets right down to sighting one, it certainly seems to be rare.