Several of the owls’ physical features, especially parts of their wings and face, help them correct for sonic distortions caused by the snow, enabling them to find their moving food with astonishing accuracy, according to a new UC Riverside study.
While most owls fly straight at their prey, this species hovers just above a target area before dropping straight down and punching through the snow with its talons.
“These aren’t the only birds to hunt this way, but in some ways, they are the most extreme because they can locate prey so far beneath the snow cover,” said UC Riverside biologist Christopher Clark, who led the study. “This species is THE snow hunting specialist.”
Clark and his team conducted a series of experiments in the forests of Manitoba, Canada, this year to better understand the owls’ precision despite snow-limited visibility and sounds. Their observations are documented in a new Proceedings of the Royal Society B paper.
A key finding relates to the owls’ broad disc-like face, which they use like radar to find food. The fleshy part of our ears works the way their facial features do. An opening under their feathers funnels sound toward their ears, which are located near the center of their faces.