Hullo! Most of you here may have watched this film right here:
Well, have you? Oh, well. It’s all in all a great movie.
So anyways, that’s not what we’re going to discuss here (the movie, we mean). What we’re going to talk about though, is the main character of the film itself, which is an owl. Specifically, Tyto alba.
We’ve grown a huge interest in owls since we were little (no, really. all 4 of us). We think they’re magnificent, with its head that can swirl around nearly in 360 degrees vertically (yep, you read that right), and their ability to sleep when the sun rises, and wake up when the moon is shining. It’s quite interesting, actually.
Tyto alba, or more commonly known as the Barn Owl (which, in our opinion is less cooler than their Latin name) has made a huge population among the Owl species, covering about 60% of them. It’s widely distributed around the world, mostly in Indonesia. A Barn Owl itself is categorized into many sub-species, but this time we will only describe them in general.
Derived from Wikipedia, here it goes:
The Barn Owl is a pale, long-winged, long-legged owl with a short squarish tail. Depending on subspecies, it measures about 25–45 cm (9.8–18 in) in overall length, with a wingspan of some 75–110 cm (30–43 in). Tail shape is a way of distinguishing the Barn Owl from true owls when seen in flight, as are the wavering motions and the open dangling feathered legs. The light face with its heart shape and the black eyes give the flying bird an odd and startling appearance, like a flat mask with oversized oblique black eyeslits, the ridge of feathers above the bill somewhat resembling a nose.
Its head and upper body typically vary between a light brown and a dark gray (especially on the forehead and back) feathers in most subspecies. Some are purer, richer brown instead, and all have fine black-and-white speckles except on the remiges and rectrices, which are light brown with darker bands. The heart-shaped face is usually bright white, but in some subspecies it is browner. The underparts (including the tarsometatarsus feathers) vary from white to reddish buff among the subspecies, and are either mostly plain or bear a varying amount of tiny blackish-brown speckles. It was found that at least in the continental European populations, females with more spotting are healthier on average. This does not hold true for European males by contrast, where the spotting varies according to subspecies. The bill varies from pale horn to dark buff, corresponding to the general plumage hue. The iris is blackish brown. The toes, as the bill, vary in color; their color ranges from pinkish to dark pinkish-gray. The talons are usually black.
At this point you may wondering why they called “Barn Owls”. These owls made nest near barns, or inside the barn itself. Barn owls bear no harm to the farm animals, but the farmer tends to kill them because they think they will disturb the animals’ sleep. Farmers sometimes even made special nests for them, creating a hole in the roof of the barn (pictured above). These holes were called uhlenloch.
Here is where the interesting part comes in. As we might know already, owls has never been reported attacking humans nor stealing humans’ belongings. But the barn owl is considered a bad omen for some people. They believe, that if a barn owl was flying in a flock to the west, then something bad is happening on a certain side of the world. This is merely a simple belief, but it has to stop. Why? Because owls would never do any harm, so why consider them as a bad omen? In fact, barn owls do help us in some things we tend to forget. Such as plucking berries, eating small animals that is considered to be some sort of plague to the crop fields, etc etc.
So let those owls take flight into the air. We humans must set them free, and let them do what they deserve to do. Owls are somewhat off of this world, but they’re never forgotten. They are very popular as “creatures of the night”, anyways.
So, take flight! Goodbye!
