Find Out More About Owls! - Hear real owls hooting - Find out which owls might live near you - Build an owl nesting box And lots more!

Majestic, mysterious, and magnificent predators, owls hunt mostly at night and roost during the day. If you hear a mob of chickadees or crows, you may see a roosting owl nearby. Of the more than 200 species of owls around the world, eight regularly occur in Massachusetts. Try these fun activities to learn more about owls.

Search your backyard or neighborhood. Can you find any of these things that are part of an owl’s habitat?

• A small animal (a chipmunk or mouse) for an owl to eat
• A place where a small animal could be safe from a hungry owl’s reach
• An open area where an owl might hunt for food
• A spot where an owl could roost, such as a dense evergreen tree

This owl is looking almost straight behind himself!

How far can you turn your head? Owls, with 14 different bones in their neck, can turn their heads nearly three-quarters of the way around. People, with just 7 different neck bones, can typically turn their heads around only about halfway.

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Take our Owl Quiz and see how much you know about owls! All of the answers can be found by going to our Owls webpage.

Did you know that most owls are nocturnal, and that they are the only birds of prey to routinely hunt at night? Fringed feathers on the edges of their wings enable owls to fly very quietly. Combined with a superb sense of vision and hearing, owls can locate and capture prey in the dark.

Try this — Carefully “spread your wings and fly” around your house or backyard in the dark. Can you move silently? Can you avoid colliding with obstacles?

Most owls lay their round eggs in nests in tall trees or in hollow tree cavities where few predators are found, and so their eggs are usually white. In contrast, songbird eggs are oval and are generally colored or speckled for camouflage to protect them from predators.

Try this — Place a ping-pong ball and a plastic egg on a table or the floor and spin them like a top. Which one rolls farther?

Owls eat small animals whole, then cough up pellets containing the indigestible parts such as bones, fur, teeth, and scales. Dissect a pellet to see what the owl has eaten. If you’re careful, you may be able to reassemble an entire skeleton! Look for pellets near owl roosts, such as an evergreen tree.