Being birds of prey, we can already answer the question 'What do owls eat?', that is, they kill other animals in order to survive.Owls usually hunt in the evening, but you can also observe them during the day. By reading this article, you will figure out about an owl's diet and even see whether there are owls living near you.

They eat fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, spiders, earthworms, snails, crabs,birds and small mammals. It is obvious that the size of the prey is proportional to the size of the owl. For example, mice are eaten by barn owl, whereas foxes are eaten by great horned owl. As you have already seen, owls are carnivorous, eating the meals entirely and tearing the meat off with the beaks. However, they cannot digest things such as teeth, feathers, bones or fur.  These indigestible parts go in the gizzard, which makes the owl pellets. These are thrown afterwards and one can see what the owl ate, just by examining the pellets. As previously stated, owl hunt and eat in darkness and very few of them in the daylight.

How do they spot the perfect prey? Thanks to their eyesight and their hearing, they can hunt perfectly even in the darkness. Because they cannot move the eyes, they have to move the heads entirely, being able to rotate them more than 270 degrees. The way an owl hunts depends on the environment. If the area is much forested, the owl sits on a lower branch and when it spots a prey, it goes straight to it and grabs it. Then it kills the prey by breaking the neck.

Also, hunting is according the type of prey. For example, small birds and insects are caught in air. owls can catch fish by skimming the water, or even the water edge to have some crayfish or fish. These are also species that wade into the water and catch water snakes, frogs, fish or crayfish.

It is not so known that the great horned owl is one of the few animals that eat skunks. Because the owl does not possess the sense of smell, it resists to the odor of the skunk. 

As you can see, the owls have a very varied diet and beneficial not only for them, but for us humans, by dealing with animals such mice or skunks, animals which sometimes make us a lot of trouble.