Birds of Prey: Owls

Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) at Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary. Delta, BC, Canada.
Photographed by Brendan Lally [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Owls, with their large, forward facing eyes seem striking, uncanny and almost human and this may help explain their powerful roles in such a wide variety of mythologies. 


The Owl Pages provides an overview of owls in myth and legend:

Owls in Mythology & Culture

An Athenian Tetradrachm from after 499 BCE. CC BY-SA 3.0 Source

World Owl Mythology 

Art by Madeline von Foerster

Raptors that hunt by night or nocturnal birds of prey are exclusively made up of two sorts of owls:

• Strigidae: "typical owls"
• Tytonidae: barn, grass and bay owls     

The Owl Pages, a wonderful resource for all things owl, has a good summary page of the various owls included in these two families:

Owl Pages: Owls of the World

Peterson Field Guides provides a good summary of many aspects of the owl:

Cornell Bird Academy provides online courses and extensive information on owls:

Snowy Owl Invasion:  A Migration Saga

Owls have an amazing repertoire 

of distinctive calls:
 

Owls of North America and their calls provided by Close Encounters of the Bird Kind:

The BBC shows us how owls are also legendary for their silent flight:

Experiment! How Does An Owl Fly So Silently? | Super Powered Owls | BBC

Observe the graceful and unique flight of a barn owl in incredible slow motion:

Barn Owl vs Peregrine Falcon vs Greylag Goose | Super Powered Owls | BBC

Their amazing flying skills are used to defend their young against other predators such as Arctic 
Skuas and Wolves:

Master of the Sky: Owl Vs Wolf 

| Super Powered Owls | BBC

Watch the full Nature documentary on the extraordinary super powers of owls:

Robert E. Fuller the British wildlife artist likes to immerse himself in the daily lives of animals and birds to lend authenticity to his final paintings and sculpture.  Here he provides a fascinating video of barn owl nesting and family life:

Bringing Up Baby: How barn owls do it

The Owl Research Institute in partnership with Explore website provides a fascinating set of owl live cams:

The Great Horned Owl 

Long-Eared Owl

Great Gray Owl 

Among many great books on owls, I would single out for special mention Canadian wildlife photographer and naturalist Wayne Lynch's Owls of the United States and Canada for his stunning photographs of North American owls in the wild, which he has often gone to extraordinary lengths to take...