Eurasian eagle owl

Owls have got excellent eyesight in the dark. They cannot recognize colours, but their eyes are twice as sensitive to light as human eyes.

characteristics:

Active in the darkness
The Eurasian eagle owl prefers to hunt in the twilight or at night. Owls have got excellent eyesight in the dark, too. They cannot recognize colours, but their eyes are twice as sensitive to light as human eyes. Even their ears are better: the Eurasian eagle owl can precisely locate its prey with them.

On silent wings
Flying noiselessly the Eurasian eagle owl tears toward the unsuspecting field mouse its chosen prey from behind and grabs it by the scruff of the neck using its sharp claws which are about 4 centimetres long. The prey hasn't got the slightest chance to escape, as it couldn't anticipate the owl's attack. Because the owl's body is covered with a layer of smooth feathers, all noise during the flight is simply swallowed up. This sound absorption prevents the prey from hearing the attacks.

No place for owls
The "boobo-boobo", also known as Eurasian eagle owl, was hunted by men for a long time. They stole its eggs and chicks from the nest. Today this owl is on the Red List of highly threatened species. The Eurasian eagle owl lives in gorges with steep wooded sides, brittle forests, and heathland. For hunting it prefers the open landscape. But as men develop more and more of the environment, the habitat of the Eurasian eagle owl becomes smaller and smaller.

It eats with skin and hair!
When the Eurasian eagle owl has made its catch, it swallows it down at once in one piece. One is hungry, after all! Bigger animals are divided into more digestible parts. It opens its beak very wide and swallows everything down: bones, hairs, feathers, and claws. Later it regurgitates these indigestible leftovers as small pellets.