Owls are birds, very clever and profound birds. Owls belong to birds of prey, as a rule, they live lonely lives, being flesh-birds, they hunt other smaller birds, insects and small animals. There are 2 families of owls: the typical and the barn owls. And in these two families can be counted near 165 species of owls. Owls are hunters, they are night creatures. So, owl sleep at day time and awake at night. Their hunting is active, owls try to astonish their victim, to surprise it.
If you meet an owl, you will never confuse it with another bird, any owl had a distinctive appearance. First of all, it has large eyes and ears, interesting beak (it looks more like hawk’s beak), flat face, big head, claws, fluffy feathers and, of course, feathers around eyes. In order to see the whole picture, owls (actually, like the rest of the birds) have to turn their heads. Moreover, owls produce very funny sounds, each kind produce its own sound. So, if it is impossible for you to distinguish owls as to their appearance you can make it by hearing to their sounds.
There are a lot of beliefs and misbeliefs as to owls. Some people believe that owls bring only misfortunes and bad luck. Such suggestions are based on their nocturnal way of life and very popular scream. But some believe that owls are symbols of wisdom and nourishing, that they bring luck and for many years were friends with people. In the ancient Egypt there were an hieroglyph with owl. Ancient Americans (namely Aztecs and Mayans) treated owls as signs of death and bad luck. Because, the Aztec God of Death had an owl-face. In Japan owls considered to be both messengers from the God and messengers from the Devil. In Greece owls were companions of the Goddess Athena, she was the goddess of art and wisdom, so owls became symbols of wisdom.
As far as I know, owls are protected by the law in the USA and in the United Kingdom, nobody can kill, injure or hunt them. Also, nobody has the right to disturb owls, when their are sitting on the eggs, because it can harm the future population, actually, it can prevent owls from … birth.
