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I work with owls everyday and I am still fascinated by them, every one of them. Their eyes are haunting, soulful, wise. They are truly created to be successful killing machines and yet they can come across as almost cuddly!

At the Northwoods Wildlife Center where I work, we have several owls that are "permanent residents." This means that they have been permanently injured but can still live a fair quality of life in captivity. These residents help Staff at the Center teach the public about owls and other wild animals.

There is nothing more satisfying than the gasp of awe that sweeps over a crowd when Orson, our Great Horned Owl is brought into a room. He is impressive. He looks large, he intently gazes over the crowd, lets out his most impressive hiss and snaps his beak a couple times, as if to remind the crowd of how scary he could be. He carries himself as an important being to be respected, he has attitude. Orson has been a resident of the Center since 1982 at which point he was brought to us as a badly injured young owl. We believe that he had a rough time with his prey that day. He most likely had gone for a skunk, Great Horned Owls do not have the best sense of smell. It is possible that the skunk turned and grabbed onto Orson's left wing and fought for its life. Orson's resulting injuries to his wing were so bad that most of the wing was amputated.

An owl's feathers are almost furry, which makes it possible for silent flight. Owls need to be silent in order to sneak up on and catch their prey at night. They use an amazing sense of hearing to zero in on their prey before swooping. Their faces have a disc like shape and do act somewhat like a satellite disc...helping them to focus in on exactly where the sound of a mouse or skunk is coming from. The ears are small hole set into the side of the head, normally located at the outer edge of the facial disc and often offset to gain better focus. The setting of the ears also is part of why the owls tilt their heads to hear better, giving them an inquisitive look.

The eyes of an owl are intense! The eyes are actually set into position and do not move as a human's eyes would. It is this fixed eye that causes them to have to move their head around to see prey or danger. The owls head cannot go all the way around, but can turn to allow them to look directly behind them. Their head can move like this because they do not have a collar bone like humans. Most owls you will see have a black pupil surrounded by yellow.

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