By: Vivienne Wellet

  Most Owls are on the endangered list because of habitat destruction and fragmentation. Another reason is because of human disturbances such as the cutting down of trees, which can be prevented. Although owls are protected under federal law, there are only about 2,000 owls of all different species around the globe. Different owl species can weigh up to 7 pounds depending on the size, and can stand up to 32 inches tall with a wingspan of up to 5 feet. They can fly for as long as 3,000 miles , which is two times as much as other birds can fly.

The tallest owl in the world is the Blakiston Fish Owl which is one of the rarest owls species there are. It Is about 6.5 feet tall and has a wingspan of 180 centimeters(72 inches). 

  The second largest and rarest ‘’species’’ is the Great Grey Owl,  it is about 32 inches long ‘’(about 4 feet)’’. Owls ‘’generally’’ like to eat small insects like moths and beetles,and a few species like to eat fish. The federal law banned shooting, poisoning, hunting, trapping, or killing of owls. If you do kill an owl purposefully, you can face six months imprisonment for common violations and a $15,000 fine. Some traits of an owl are their upright posture, binocular vision, binaural hearing, turning their head 360 degrees, and their silent flights.

 There are about 250 species of owls including the Barn- Owl, Screech-Owl, and native ones to Florida like the Short- Eared owl and the Great Horned Owl. People sometimes ask. Could owls interact with humans?  The answer is YES,’’ they can’’. Research has proven that owls potentially could be social companions to humans. They can be extremely friendly and very intelligent. 

Interesting fact about owls is that they  aren’t very active during the day, but at night they come out. They feed their strongest babies first ‘’rather’’ than their weakest, and a group of owls are called parliament. Owls can be colored from grey, white, brown, black, to even yellow and red. Although owls have amazing eyesight ‘’as’’ they see in the color blue(ultraviolet), the reason for that is to find a mate and to find food. 

  If you ever wondered, “What would happen if the owls were extinct?” The answer is that if they’re gone, then all of the organisms they usually prey on would experience population explosions since they’re with one less predator. Think about it, if owls were became2 big things would happen. The numbers of producers would die off because the prey would be overpopulated and organisms would eat it all, and  the food chain and life cycle won’t be able to work correctly. About 9 owl species have been extinct since 1978, including Anjouan Island Scops owl, Mauritius Scops owl, and the Leguat Owl.

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