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Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (/ˈstrɪdʒəfɔːrmiːz/), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers adapted for silent flight. Exceptions include the diurnal northern hawk-owl and the gregarious burrowing owl.

Owl
Temporal range: Late Paleocene to recent 60–0 Ma
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Portrait of owls.jpg
Left Strigidae: Tawny owl (Strix aluco), Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo), Little owl (Athene noctua), Northern saw-whet owl (Aegolius acadicus); Right Tytonidae: Barn owl (Tyto alba), Lesser sooty owl (Tyto m

A group of owls is called a "parliament".[1]

Anatomy

Behavior

Evolution and systematics

Symbolism and mythology

African cultures
Among the Kikuyu of Kenya, it was believed that owls were harbingers of death. If one saw an owl or heard its hoot, someone was going to die. In general, owls are viewed as harbingers of bad luck, ill health, or death. The belief is widespread even today.[47]

Asia
In Mongolia, the owl is regarded as a benign omen. In one story, Genghis Khan was hiding from enemies in a small coppice when an owl roosted in the tree above him, which caused his pursuers to think no man could be hidden there.[48]

In modern Japan, owls are regarded as lucky and are carried in the form of a talisman or charm.[49]

Sumerian and ancient Semitic cultures
In Sumerian, Akkadian, and Babylonian culture, the owl was associated with Lilith.[50] This association also occurs in the Bible (in some translations) in Isaiah 34:14.[51]

Ancient European and modern Western culture
The modern West generally associates owls with wisdom and vigilance. This link goes back at least as far as Ancient Greece, where Athens, noted for art and scholarship, and Athena, Athens' patron goddess and the goddess of wisdom, had the owl as a symbol.[52] Marija Gimbutas traces veneration of the owl as a goddess, among other birds, to the culture of Old Europe, long pre-dating Indo-European cultures.[53]

T. F. Thiselton-Dyer, in his 1883 Folk-lore of Shakespeare, says that "from the earliest period it has been considered a bird of ill-omen," and Pliny tells us how, on one occasion, even Rome itself underwent a lustration, because one of them strayed into the Capitol. He represents it also as a funereal bird, a monster of the night, the very abomination of human kind. Virgil describes its death-howl from the top of the temple by night, a circumstance introduced as a precursor of Dido's death. Ovid, too, constantly speaks of this bird's presence as an evil omen; and indeed the same notions respecting it may be found among the writings of most of the ancient poets."[54] A list of "omens drear" in John Keats' Hyperion includes the "gloom-bird's hated screech."[55] Pliny the Elder reports that owl's eggs were commonly used as a hangover cure.[56]


An owl-shaped protocorinthian aryballos, c. 640 BCE, from Greece


A Roman owl mosaic from Italica, Spain


A Manises plate, c. 1535. A fantastical owl wearing a crown, a characteristic Manises design during the first half of the 16th century


The Little Owl, 1506, by Albrecht Dürer


Wooden Owls of Natungram, West Bengal, India. The wooden owl is an integral part of an ancient and indigenous tradition and art form in Bengal along with its auspicious association with Goddess of wealth, Laxmi.

Hinduism

The Hindu goddess Lakshmi with the owl
In Hinduism, an owl is the vahana (mount) of the goddess Lakshmi, specially in eastern region of India.[57] Owl is considered a symbol of wealth, prosperity, wisdom, good luck and Fortune. This is the reason why Owl is seen with Godden Lakshmi, who is also the goddess the fortune, wealth and prosperity. The Goddess Lakshmi, is known to have a White Barn Owl as her vahana.

At the same time, owls are also associated with evil times in Hinduism. At times, Chamunda (fearsome form of Chandi) is depicted seated on an owl, her vahana (mount or vehicle). Hindus believed that owls are messengers of death.[58]

Native American cultures
People often allude to the reputation of owls as bearers of supernatural danger when they tell misbehaving children, "the owls will get you",[59] and in most Native American folklore, owls are a symbol of death.

According to the Apache and Seminole tribes, hearing owls hooting is considered the subject of numerous "bogeyman" stories told to warn children to remain indoors at night or not to cry too much, otherwise the owl may carry them away.[60][61] In some tribal legends, owls are associated with spirits of the dead, and the bony circles around an owl's eyes are said to comprise the fingernails of apparitional humans. Sometimes owls are said to carry messages from beyond the grave or deliver supernatural warnings to people who have broken tribal taboos.[62]

The Aztecs and the Maya, along with other natives of Mesoamerica, considered the owl a