are owls really wise??? i remember someone telling me they are actually a bit dumb?

Question

yeah so i know owls are associated with wisdom especially from greek mythology and stuff. but i remember once someone telling me a long time ago that owls are actually a bit stupid. this person worked with birds of prey and visited my class wayyyy back in 5th grade. i'm not sure if that's actually what they said or if i just made it up. anyone know if it's true? my friend wants a tattoo of an owl because she says it represents everything she wants ("wisdom, mystery, etc.") but that's kind of weird if owls don't. then again it's not really my place to tell her what her tattoo represents...or something...

Answer 1

The "wise owl" myth is based entirely on an owl's appearance related to human perception. Owls are not very bright because they do not need to be. They have excellent night vision and special feathers to swoop down on prey quietly. They are superbly adapted as hunters. As such, there is no evolutionary pressure to develop exceptional intelligence and thus owls are not exceptionally smart. I got this information from a bird trainer at our local zoo. He commented on how hard it was to teach owls tricks compared to other birds.

Answer 2

Its not the brightest of the predator birds, but it isn't
the stupidest either.

We're finding out more and more about birdy
intelligence - their ability solve puzzles to get
food, etc, but as far as I know, nobody has
ever tried to do this with an owl.

None of the birds are anywhere near as intelligent
as the first order primates.

Answer 3

we have encroached on the habitat of every animal on the planet, butI can only remeber seeing, in my lifetime, two owls. They are not endangered and adapt to whatever man has to offer, I dont k now if they can be considered wise in the truest sense of the word, but unintelligent, NO.