The Anatomy of an Owl

Owls are birds of prey, also known as predators. They hunt small mammals such as mice, squirrels, even young foxes; they also hunt insects, frogs, fish and even other birds in order to survive. Most owls are nocturnal, meaning that they only hunt their prey in the dark. Owls adapted skills such as stealth, extraordinary vision, and superb hearing in order to locate their prey. Not only do they adapt skills, but they also adapt special features to their bodies that allocate them to be such silent predators.

Body parts such as wide wings, light bodies, and soft feathers, make an owl silent but deadly. Their prey is usually killed with their powerful claws and the prey is torn apart by its powerfully strong beak. Owls come in many different types of species varying from the Great-horned Owl to the Snowy Owl who only come in the winter. Owls can also rotate their heads and necks to 270 degrees due to their fourteen neck vertebrae.

They also have large eyes and a flat face which permits a greater sense of depth perception beneficially for hunting. Owls are extraordinary and special creatures that can be all regions on Earth.

One of the most important bones on an Owl would be its eye ring. The eye ring is made up of fused bones that surround the eyeball. In owls, the eye ring is larger compared to most animals, causing an Owl’s eyes to be locked in place. Because of this bone structure, Owls get a wide range of binocular vision in which they can see an object with both of their eyeballs at the same time.

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Their eyes are not usually considered as eye balls, but they are more of an elongated tube. The “tubes” are held in place by a structure in their skull called Sclerotic rings. This is the reason why Owls cannot roll their eyes like other animals or birds, they can only keep focus on what in front of them. Owls are also equipped with three eyelids. This weird function serves to protect the Owls eyes. The eye lids consist of a normal upper and lower eyelid, and the middle eyelid is called a nictitating membrane which is a thin layer of tissue that cleans and protects the Owls eye. Behind the eye ring of an Owl, you can find the Sclerotic ring mentioned earlier; they can only be found in several groups of vertebrae types of animals, excluding mammals and crocodiles. They can be made up of many bones or one bone, and they support the eye for animals whose eyes aren’t spherical and even underwater creatures.

Many birds have beaks, which are either known as the maxilla, mandible or for birds, the upper bill. This bone, the mandible, provides a very important job to birds and other creatures since they are an important structure for eating and hunting. The upper mandible is supported by a bone called then intermaxillary. The intermaxillary can be described as a three pronged bones, the upper part of the bone is embedded into the forehead while the other two are attached to the skull. The upper mandible contains nasal bones which are also attached to the skull. This gives the Owl the motion to move its beak up and down. The lower mandible is supported by a bone known as an inferior maxillary bone. This allows the Owl to close its beak. At the end of the mandibles, are the two cutting edges known as the tomia. The tomia ranges from rounded to sharp. Its function serves an important role since it is the reason for the Owl to gain its food.

The Quadrate bone is defined as a paired bone that acts as an anchor for framework that supports and moves the lower mandible. It is a part of a skull that can also be found in tetra pods, amphibians, reptiles, and birds. It is a small bone when compared to the rest of the others found in the skull. This bone connects to the quadratojungal, a small jaw bone that is between the cheek, and the squasmosal bone which is the principal component of the cheek region in the skull. The quadrate bone forms part of the jaw joint for the Owl and helps maintain the structure of the Owls beak. This bone when seen on a skull can be described as a hinge on a door, since it is part of the jaw that helps moves its beak.