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Title: All About OwlsAuthor: Olivia V. Sanderfoot, Summer Educator, Madison Audubon SocietyTopics: anatomical features, behaviors, and life history strategies of owlsRelated Disciplines: biology, ecology, ornithologyObjectives:Learn about the unique features of owls that distinguish them from other types of birds.Understand which anatomical features of owls make them such excellent birds of prey. Appreciate the diversity of owls and other types of birds found around the world.Lesson:Students will learn all about owls in this three-part lesson:Part One: An Interactive DiscussionFollow this guided discussion to teach students in your class all about owls. The discussion includes links to several videos which can be played for the class to illustrate owl behaviors, such as predation. Please note that this discussion works best if videos can be projected onto a large screen.What IS an owl?Owls are birds of prey, meaning they are carnivorous and hunt for their food.Q: Have you seen any birds of prey?Owls are usually nocturnal, unlike humans, which means they are most active at night.Q: What are some examples of other animals that live in Wisconsin that are nocturnal? (A: bats, raccoons, possums)Owls are usually solitary, but sometimes hang out in groups during the nonbreeding season, or wintertime.There are lots of different species of owls.Q: Can anyone guess how many species of birds there are in the world? (A: about 10,000!)Q: Can anyone guess how many species of owls there are in the world? (A: over 200!)Why are owls such excellent hunters?Owls have sharp talons and hooked bills, like hawks and falcons, which makes it easy to quickly and efficiently take down prey.Owls fly silently. Their soft feathers have unique edges that absorb sound.Q: Why would it be useful to a bird of prey to fly silently? (A: This makes it easy to sneak up on prey.)Owls have excellent hearing. Owls don’t have ears that look like ours. Instead, they have two holes on the sides of their head that receive and interpret sound waves. The flat shape of their faces creates a feather disk that helps channel sound to their ears. Their ears are not in the same spot on both sides of their head, like ours are. Instead, one ear is slightly higher than the other, which helps owls pinpoint their prey. ( HYPERLINK "" Video: Super-Hearing Helps Owl Hunt)What else makes owls special?Owls cannot move their eyes and must move their necks to change their field of view. They can rotate their neck up to 270 degrees! How can they do this? Well, they have twice as many bones in their neck as we do!Owls typically eat their prey whole, and regurgitate the parts of the animals that they consume but cannot digest, such as fur, bones, and claws. They produce 1 to 2 pellets each day. (Video: Barred Owl Regurgitating a Pellet)Owls also have incredible defensive mechanisms. They can get really big to scare away predators or really small to hide from them. (Video: Mom Great Horned Owl Reacts to Threat to Chicks)Owls are also amazing at camouflage, such as the Eastern Screech-owl. (Video: Through the Lens: Eastern Screech-Owl)Q: Why might an owl want to camouflage? (A: to stay hidden from predators)Q: What might an owl want to blend in with? (A: vegetation, trees, etc.)What types of owls live in Wisconsin, and what are their calls? HYPERLINK "" Great Horned OwlHYPERLINK ""Barred Owl HYPERLINK "" Short-eared Owl HYPERLINK "" Long-eared Owl (alarm call) HYPERLINK "" Snowy Owl HYPERLINK "" Eastern Screech-owl HYPERLINK "" Northern Saw-whet Owl HYPERLINK "" Northern Hawk Owl (mating call) HYPERLINK "" Burrowing Owl HYPERLINK "" Great Gray Owl HYPERLINK "" Boreal Owl (territorial call) HYPERLINK "" Barn OwlPart Two: Outdoor GamesTo help reinforce some of the ideas discussed in part one of this lesson plan, engage your class in playing two outdoor games designed to help students think about owl hearing and owl vision. The goal of the games is to show students how useful it would be to have the powerful hearing of an owl or an owl’s excellent night vision.Game 1: The Hunt: Students will sit in a circle. One student will be selected to be the owl and one student will be selected to be the mouse. The student acting as the owl will be blindfolded and stand at the center of the circle while the student acting as the mouse will run along the outside of the circle. The students in the circle will make nighttime nature sounds (wind, rustling leaves, etc.) The student acting as the owl will try to track the student acting as the mouse. When the teacher says, “dive!” the student will point to where along the edge of the circle they think the student acting as the mouse is located.Game 2: Owl Tag: Half of the students will be given owl vision goggles, which constrict their peripheral vision. These students are the owls. The remaining half of the students are mice. The students will play tag, the owls chasing the mice. Mice that are tagged must freeze for 15 seconds while they are “digested,” and then they are free to move again, pretending to be a new mouse.Part Three: Owl Pellet DissectionIn this last part of the lesson, students will dissect owl pellets and use a chart to determine what an owl’s last meal was. Students should be provided with an owl pellet, tweezers, a magnifying glass, a worksheet, and a pencil. There are two versions of the worksheet available, one for elementary school students and one for middle school students. The worksheet includes three pages of activities. The first page provides space for students to draw and record observations of what they find in their owl pellet. Answering the questions on this page should be the focus of part three of today’s lesson.If students finish early, have them move on to the second two pages in the worksheet. Print out several photos of different owl species and lay them out on a table away from where other students are working on their owl pellet dissection.* The second page of the worksheet has students compare and contrast the shape, colors, and other visual markers of the different owl species in the photos. The last page of the worksheet includes a list of true or false questions that students can answer individually or in groups that will help them think about what they learned in class today.*Note that the photos should be printed and laid out ahead of time, rather than during class. ................
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