Can you tell me some useless facts about Owls, or Bald Eagles?

Question

There is a Barred Owl, and Bald Eagle at my work that I get to look at every evening. Any facts about them would be welcome. They never seem bored to see me.

Answer 1

Bald eagles:

"The bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), our national bird, is the only eagle unique to North America. The bald eagle's scientific name signifies a sea (halo) eagle (aeetos) with a white (leukos) head. At one time, the word "bald" meant "white," not hairless. Bald eagles are found over most of North America, from Alaska and Canada to northern Mexico. About half of the world's 70,000 bald eagles live in Alaska. Combined with British Columbia's population of about 20,000, the northwest coast of North America is by far their greatest stronghold for bald eagles. They flourish here in part because of the salmon. Dead or dying fish are an important food source for all bald eagles."
http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/

"Both male and female adult bald eagles have a blackish-brown back and breast; a white head, neck, and tail; and yellow feet and beak.
Juvenile bald eagles are a mixture of brown and white; with a black bill in young birds. The adult plumage develops when they're sexually mature. It takes about 5 years for their head and tail feathers to gradually turn white...
Wild bald eagles may live as long as thirty years, but the average lifespan is probably about fifteen to twenty years. A captive eagle at West Stephentown, NY lived to be at least 48 years old...
Eagles do not sweat, so they need to use other cooling methods such as perching in the shade, panting, and holding their wings away from their body.

Tolerance to cold temperatures - A bald eagle's skin is protected by feathers lined with down. The feet are cold resistance because they are mostly tendon. The outside of the bill is mostly nonliving material, with little blood supply.

Eagles sit at the top of the food chain, making them more vulnerable to toxic chemicals in the environment, since each link in the food chain tends to concentrate chemicals from the lower link.

Fidelity - Once paired, bald eagles remain together until one dies, the survivor will not hesitate to accept a new mate."

http://www.baldeagleinfo.com/eagle/eagle8.html



Barred Owl:

"DESCRIPTION, SENSES: Barred owls are large owls with round heads and NO ear tufts. They are brownish-gray with brown and white bars across their chest. (That’s why they’re called "barred" owls.) Their legs are covered with feathers. The barred owls’ eyes are dark brown, while most other owls have yellow eyes. Their beaks are sharp, but very small, so they are almost covered up by facial feathers. Owls can see very well at night, but they can also see during the day. They have a special inner eyelid which blocks bright sunlight - owl sunglasses! Most birds have eyes on their sides of their head. This helps them to see sideways and backwards. Owls, however, have both eyes in the front. This gives them good depth perception (helps them to tell how far away something is). Unfortunately, it means they can’t see sideways or backwards. To deal with this, owls can turn their head ALMOST all the way around. But they can’t spin their head in a full circle; their head would twist off! Owl ears are just holes on the sides of their head covered with feathers. These holes are higher on one side than the other. This helps the owl tell if a sound is coming from above or below. When you hear a sound, and you can’t tell where it’s coming from, don’t you tilt your head to listen better? The owl doesn’t have to tilt his head. His ears are tilted already! You also cup your hand over your ear to help you hear, right? Owls don’t have hands, but they can fluff the feathers around their ear holes to make a little funnel, just like your hand. The ear tufts that some owls have are NOT ears. They’re just feathers that might scare away predators. The barred owls’ sense of smell is probably not that strong. They even eat skunks...
Barred owls like to sit on trees which have small branches and moss to hide and camouflage them. When they fly, they flap their wings a lot, instead of soaring like a vulture. This is because they have special soft feathers. Soft feathers are quiet; this helps the owl to sneak up on night animals. But soft feathers are not very good at catching the wind. The owl is a good hunter, but he can’t rest and soar. He must work hard to fly."
http://pelotes.jea.com/Barrowls.htm

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Owls can't move their eyes within their eye sockets -- that's why they've evolved the ability to turn their heads nearly all the way around in both directions.

Owls can fly without making almost any noise because of the design of their feathers.

Bald eagles weren't the first choice for the national symbol of the US. Ben Franklin wanted the wild turkey to the symbol because of its cunning abilities.

Answer 4

I know a few things about owl vomit.

Owls rip and swallow their prey in large chunks - bones, hair and all. They cannot digest the bones or hair and yack it up later in dry clumps, called owl pellets.

When I was a kid, we used to hunt for pellets, usually found at the base of large trees, directly under roosts. They were interesting...most contained full skeletons of small animals and birds. And they were valuable, as they could be sold - to schools and researchers.

Answer 5

Useless facts? Okay, Bald Eagles are not really bald.

Answer 6

a bald eagle doesn't get the white crown on its head until its around 2 years old, and they caan have up to 6 foot wingspans.

Answer 7

If you do a Yahoo search for each of these particular birds, you will find a lot of good information.

Barred owls are very interesting.. i used to have a family of them living near my barn...and they'd come to my back yard pond quite often looking for frogs.

Answer 8

I can tell you that a google search does wonders

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=barred+owl

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=bald+eagle