Sleep Inducers & Killing Machines
BIRD BRAINS: Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends (ISBN: 978-0-7267-8755-5)
by
Budd Titlow
If you’re seeking a cure for insomnia or a way to design a more efficient deadly weapon, the same bird can provide solutions to both of these very different problems.
Having trouble falling asleep or going back to sleep again after you wake up? Just convince a great horned owl—GHO in birding lingo—to move into your neighborhood. They are the classic hoot owls, whose call, Who’s awake? Me too!, is repeated every minute or so. If you concentrate on listening to them, they will divert your worrisome thoughts and help you back to sleep.
A Great Horned Owl is the classic “hoot owl”, whose call, “Who’s awake? Me too”, is repeated every minute or so. They can be found in just about every habitat throughout the United States. (Photo Copyright Budd Titlow, NATUREGRAPHS)
Living throughout the United States and Canada, great horned owls can be found in just about any habitat imaginable. They set up their feeding and nesting territories everywhere from tropical rain forests to barren deserts to residential backyards and every place in between. The primary reason GHOs are so widespread and successful is quite simple—it’s because they have no challengers. They are “alpha birds,” meaning they are at the top of the food chain. Plus, since adult GHOs fear no other animals on earth, there’s nothing that can keep them from going wherever they want whenever they want.
Because of their awesome physical features, the GHO would make the perfect avian prototype for designing a new fighter jet. GHOs are often called “nature’s perfect killing machines” and “flying tigers” for very good reasons. In the minds of most birding experts, they are the deadliest raptor on earth.
Displaying its ominous “killing machine” features, a Great Horned Owl (Bubo Virginians) glides silently across a forest clearing. (Photo Copyright Lorenz/Shutterstock.com)
Named for their prominent tufts of ear feathers, great horneds hunt under the cover of darkness by perching on the tops of snag trees or dead limbs and waiting for unsuspecting prey to come along. Practically any living creature that walks, hops, runs, crawls, flies, or swims—except large mammals—may be on the GHO’s dinner menu. Statistically, small- to medium-sized mammals that move around a lot at night—rabbits, flying squirrels, and shrews—comprise this awesome raptor’s most common food items. Whenever possible, great horneds also take their meals the easiest way possible, by snatching sleeping songbirds right off their nocturnal roosts.
This incredible killing efficiency of great horneds is based, first and foremost, on their ability to fly stealthily on silent wings—an amazing feat for such a large bird. The leading edges of their wings have comb-like devices that deaden the “whooshing” sound wings typically make. This allows GHO’s to swoop in for kills, their prey unaware that instant death is descending from above.
Although we’re not listed among their natural prey species, humans could even be susceptible to hunting prowess of great horned owls. Their razor-sharp beaks can rip clothing and gouge human flesh and their tong-like, bone-piercing talons—generating three hundred pounds per square inch (psi) of crushing power—can rip open human scalps. If provoked, they can even use their sixteen-inch-wide, sixty-inch-long wings to beat even full-grown men to the ground. Finally, there’s the GHO’s unearthly horror-movie scream, fair warning of the destruction to come.
With the exception of smell, the GHO’s senses are also exceptional, especially in the dark. Their sound-collecting facial disks and offset ears allow them to hear a mouse moving under a heavy snowpack. Visually, they are able to see one hundred times better at night than humans. However, they have no sense of smell, perhaps explaining why skunks are also one of their favorite prey species.
Text excerpted from book: BIRD BRAINS: Inside the Strange Minds of Our Fine Feathered Friends, written by Budd Titlow and published by Lyons Press (an imprint of Globe Pequot Press).
Author’s bio: For the past 50 years, professional ecologist and conservationist Budd Titlow has used his pen and camera to capture the awe and wonders of our natural world. His goal has always been to inspire others to both appreciate and enjoy what he sees. Now he has one main question: Can we save humankind’s place — within nature’s beauty — before it’s too late? Budd’s two latest books are dedicated to answering this perplexing dilemma. PROTECTING THE PLANET: Environmental Champions from Conservation to Climate Change, a non-fiction book, examines whether we still have the environmental heroes among us — harking back to such past heroes as Audubon, Hemenway, Muir, Douglas, Leopold, Brower, Carson, and Meadows — needed to accomplish this goal. Next, using fact-filled and entertaining story-telling, his latest book — COMING FULL CIRCLE: A Sweeping Saga of Conservation Stewardship Across America — provides the answers we all seek and need. Having published five books, more than 500 photo-essays, and 5,000 photographs, Budd Titlow lives with his music educator wife, Debby, in San Diego, California.
This Birding Life 