Adaptations - Owls

Focus: Owls are uniquely adapted for their lives as nocturnal predators.

Puppets (Ollie Owl, Barry Blue Jay)

Materials Checklist
Picture Parade (slide show, projector, screen, or pictures of owls, pictures of songbirds) Calling All Owls (recording of owl calls, slide show or pictures of owls, tape player, projector, screen)
Owl and Mouse (blindfolds, paper for mouse to rustle)
Pellet Investigation (owl pellets, black poster board, glue, toothpicks, hand lenses, charts of mouse and vole skeletons)
Puppet Show (puppets, script, pine cone on a stick, paper to flap for wing noise)

Supplementary Reference Materials (Owl Pictures, Slide show scripts: Grades K-2, Grades 3-6, Owl Skull diagram, Crossword and Kid Bits, Owl Facts, Owl Call Descriptions, Owl Pellet ID sheet, Pellets)

Additional Reading/Resources
One Man's Owl, by Bernd Heinrich, Princeton University Press, 1993.
Owl Moon, by Jane Yolen, Philomel Books, 1987.
All About Owls, by Jim Arnosky, Econo-clad Books, 2001.
So What, Saw-Whet?, by Rochelle Frank and Linda Gast, Hummingbird Mountain Press, Mariposa, CA, 2004.
"Owl pages" website.
More background information on owl pellets.
Dissect a virtual owl pellet at Kid Wings.com
Here is a website with fantastic photos and audio, documenting five years of watching a pair of nesting barred owls in Eastern Massachusetts (includes a video camera in the nestbox). www.owlcam.com
VINS Outreach program on Owls. (ELF schools get a 30 % discount!)

ELF Notes - Template for newsletter on Owls
* Word document * pdf file

For Younger Children
Many of the activities in VINS's new Small Wonders book can be used in ELF, too. To find appropriate activities for children aged 3-6, click here.

Teaching suggestions
Picture Parade
If human eyes were proportionally the same size as owls' eyes, they'd be the size of grapefruits! You could make a boxboard mask or foam ball eyes to demonstrate this.

If you are in a city environment, ask whether the children have seen or heard owls in the city. What kinds of prey can owls find in the city? Squirrels, rats and other rodents, skunks, insects, birds, and maybe even small pets. How might being nocturnal be a beneficial adaptation in the city? Many rodents are active at night, so owls are able to find food. In addition, there may be fewer predators and humans to avoid. Where do you think owls might nest or rest during the daytime? Woodsy sections of parks or golf courses, in the crevice of a tree, in buildings.

Owl Ears
In addition to having students cup their hands behind their ears to better funnel sound to their own ears, have students try plugging one ear with a finger and seeing how this affects their hearing. Can they point to the direction from which the sound is coming now?

Pellet Investigation
The pellets we purchase have been heat sterilized. Store pellets in a box or plastic container so they don't get crushed.

Ahead of time, divide the total owl pellets into separate bags and label for each classroom. VINS provides one pellet per every three children.

Check for asthma in the group and have some disposable dust masks – to be used IF there's a health concern.

Give each child two round toothpicks and a sheet of paper to work on. Provide each group with a magnifying jar in which to place the collected bones as they are dissecting – later they can spill the bones out to arrange them on paper.

Be sure to allow plenty of time as kids will want to glue down all their bones.

Learning Goals
Concepts/Ideas

• Owls have special adaptations that allow them to be successful as nocturnal predators.
• Variation in owl calls allows members of same species to locate or identify each other
• Owls usually swallow smaller prey whole and rip larger prey into pieces, coughing up indigestible parts in the form of a pellet.
• Examination of a pellet can tell what an owl has been eating.

Vocabulary: adaptations, nocturnal, birds of prey, predator, prey, raptors, facial disk, beak, talons, asymmetrical, owl call, owl pellet, indigestible (definitions)

Skills:

• Identifying through observation, active listening and discussion the special adaptations that owls have that help them to be successful nighttime hunters
• Listening to and comparing calls of some different owls.
• Experiencing locating sounds and hunting as an owl would.
• Discussing how owls eat.
• Examining, sorting and classifying objects found in owl pellets, using evidence and diagrams to speculate about what owls eat and to recognize their role in food chains.

Grade Expectations:
Grades PK-K (S30, S38) Owls are living animals that need food, water, and air to stay alive. An owl uses its beak, feet, ears and ability to fly to hunt for and catch food. Owls eat mice and other small animals.

Grades 1-2 (S30, S38) Owls are birds of prey; they depend on and hunt small animals as food. Owls have body parts that help them to survive in the particular places they live.

Grades 3-4 (S30, S38) Owls have specific physical and behavioral adaptations that help them to get what they need and to defend themselves in their environment. Owls are carnivores; they eat small animals and have unique adaptations for digesting their food.

Grades 5-6 (S30, S38) Physical characteristics of owls may vary according to the kinds of food they eat and the places they live. Particular habits and features are used to identify a specific kind of owl.

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