The Way of the Owl: Interesting Facts

Well, I am not one to jump to the end of a book...AT ALL. That would be against the very roots of my OCD...everything must be done in order. So, I finished the book this morning and will be posting my final review shortly, but guess what was at the end of the book? A whole chapter on "Some Things You Might Not Know About Barn Owls". She wrote 18 things...I won't bore you will all 18, but I will share a couple more that I found really interesting. Enjoy!

Interesting Fact #6
Barn owls practice birth control. They will breed only when they perceive an excess of available mice for food. In a facility where I [Stacey O'Brien] worked, we found that when barn owls were given three daily mice each, they left some of the food uneaten, and they bred. When we lowered their portion to two daily mice, they stopped breeding.

I guess owls have learned how to wait to get pregnant when they have enough money (or mice) for it...LOL.

Interesting Fact #7
Barn owls can "make faces", unlike most birds, because they have many tiny facial muscles. They use facial expressions to communicate, as humans do.

Interesting Fact #8
Barn owls can recognize themselves in the mirror, a feat usually reserved for great apes and humans. Wesley often admired his feathers in the mirror after a bath, and would relate to me through the mirror in the way that humans do when they are both looking into the mirror at each other and talking.