Owls are birds, and most owls are awake and hunt at night. Most owls live alone, and they live on every continent except Antarctica. Owls have big eyes, but they cannot move their eyes around, so they turn their whole heads instead. An owl can turn its head far around to look behind it. How does a bird find its dinner in the dark?

Owls also bob and sway their heads to judge distance. Some people think owls can see in any darkness, but owls cannot see in total darkness. An owl's ears are holes in its head, hidden under feathers. The ring of feathers around an owl's face is called the facial disc, and it helps funnel sound to the owl's ears. An owl can hear a mouse step on a twig from about 75 feet (23 meters) away.

Many owls fly almost without a sound. Owls catch small animals such as mice to eat, and a snowy owl's favorite food is lemmings. They grab their food with sharp claws called talons. Owls have no teeth, so they often swallow their food whole. Owls cough up pellets of fur and bones that they cannot digest. Taking apart an owl pellet shows what the owl ate.

Most owls do not build their own nests. They use old nests of other birds or holes in trees. Burrowing owls nest in holes in the ground, and they often use burrows dug by other animals, such as prairie dogs, ground squirrels and badgers, rather than digging their own. Snowy owls spend the summer on the cold, treeless tundra of the far north.

Owls help people by eating rodents such as mice and rats. Barn owls have heart-shaped faces. The "horns" of a great horned owl are really tufts of feathers. As of November 2026, scientists recognize more than 200 kinds of owls.

Words to know

• talons: sharp claws
• pellets: fur-and-bone balls
• facial: of the face
• tundra: treeless land
• burrows: holes underground

The short version

Owls are birds, and most are awake and hunt at night. They have big eyes, hidden ears and a ring of feathers around the face that helps funnel sound to the ears. An owl can hear a mouse step on a twig from about 75 feet away, and many owls fly almost without a sound.

Quick facts

• Owls cannot move their eyes around, so they turn their whole heads instead.
• The ring of feathers around an owl's face, called the facial disc, helps funnel sound to its ears.
• An owl can hear a mouse step on a twig from about 75 feet (23 meters) away.
• Owls cough up pellets of fur and bones that they cannot digest, and taking one apart shows what the owl ate.
• As of November 2026, scientists recognize more than 200 kinds of owls.