Owls are birds. Most owls are awake and hunt at night.

Owls have big eyes. But owls cannot move their eyes around. They turn their whole heads instead. An owl can turn its head far around to look behind it.

Many owls fly almost without a sound. The edges of an owl's feathers are soft.

Owls catch small animals such as mice to eat. They grab their food with sharp claws called talons.

Owls have no teeth. They often swallow their food whole. Owls cough up pellets of fur and bones that they cannot digest.

Most owls do not build their own nests. They use old nests of other birds or holes in trees.

Barn owls have heart-shaped faces. The "horns" of a great horned owl are really tufts of feathers.

Burrowing owls nest in holes in the ground. Snowy owls spend the summer on the cold, treeless tundra of the far north.

Owls make many kinds of calls, including hoots and screeches. Owls live almost everywhere in the world.

Words to know

• talons: sharp claws
• pellets: fur-and-bone balls
• tundra: cold, treeless land
• tufts: bunches of feathers
• screeches: loud cries