Guys….
I was bored last night and saw some videos about owls while I was brainrotting on instagram. So, I decided to read about them.
I’m not gonna lecture you about them. So don’t worry, this isn’t something serious.
I’m just gonna share some genuinely interesting facts about them.
Why do they look like they know something?
Their deep penetrating eyes are genuinely spooky. And their slow blinks are weird. Their eyes are forward-facing.
Unlike humans, their eyes aren’t eyeballs. They turn their heads to look sideways.
The 270° head turn situation (??? Excuse me???)
What??? They can actually rotate their heads up to 270° because they have an extra vertebrae. They also have a special blood flow system.
When they move their head around like that, their blood supply to the brain doesn’t cut off (im sHOOK).
Silent flying
Their feathers absorb sounds (bruh). Is anything not special in their body?
The edges of their feathers are serrated, which breaks airflow, hence no flapping noise.
They have 3 eyelids (yeah, you read that right)
The top eyelid closes when they blink normally.
The bottom eyelid comes up when they sleep.
The third eyelid is a transparent layer that sweeps sideways to clean and protect the eyes.
Their ears are…uneven??
Exactly.
Their ears are unevenly located on the skull. And there’s a reason for that.
There’s no bullshitting with them.
The asymmetrical ears help them pinpoint sound in 3D, even under snow.
And the face? It works like a satellite dish (yeah, I know). It directs sound to the ears.
Also, their beak? It faces downward so it doesn’t bounce sound away from their face. Instead of interfering, it just… stays out of the way. Respectfully.
They swallow things whole and…deal with it later
They swallow their prey whole. And then cough up the leftovers. Like??
And their talons are absolute weapons. So, like, don’t trust their feathery deception.
If you guys already knew all this, well, sorry for wasting your time. But if you didn’t, aren’t they really interesting? Anyways, this was a late night find.
Thanks for reading.