Face to Face with Barn Owls
One day I was hiking in the mountains when I made
a great discovery. Actually, my dog did. She stopped in
her path. Her nose
pointed to a small cave on a steep slope.
Baby Barn Owls
I peered into the cave. Deep inside sat four small owl chicks. Each
one was about the size of my fist. They had no big feathers yet,
just fine white feathers called down.
They raised their heads slowly and clumsily. They looked at me with
squinting eyes.
I took a few pictures. Then I climbed
away and waited for the parents to return. Soon a large bird swooped
into the nest. It had a ring of feathers around its face that made
the shape of a heart. I knew it was a barn owl.
The barn owl makes its nest in caves and in hollows of trees. Sometimes it chooses old buildings or barns. That’s how it got its most common name, barn owl. Some people think its face looks like a monkey’s face. That’s why people sometimes call it the monkey-faced owl.
Growing Up
Weeks
later, I visited the four chicks again.They greeted me with a very
loud HISSSSS.
The sound hurt my ears! Now the chicks were big and fluffy. Big feathers
were just starting to grow around their faces. After a few minutes,
the chicks relaxed. I took some pictures. The chicks stared at me with
dark glassy eyes. They moved their heads slowly from side to side. I
then left the area so the adults could return.
Adult
barn owls hunt for food at night. They can see much better in dim light
than humans can. Barn owls also have amazing hearing. Even in complete
darkness, they can use their sensitive ears to catch their prey. They
can catch a small rodent, like a mouse, without even seeing it. The
owl uses sharp claws on its feet to snatch small animals such as mice,
moles, gophers, and rabbits.
On my last visit to the nest, the chicks burst out of the cave and flew away before I got too close. I had been very lucky to get face to face with those owls—when they were big fluffy chicks. Now they were adult barn owls, flying free.
 |
 |
|---|
