Great Horned Owl Research Paper

Improved Essays
One of the most interesting and intriguing organisms that exists in the Los Angeles area is the owl. Southern California is home to several different species of owls. The three main species are the western screech owl, the great horned owl, and the North American barn owl. They dwell in various types of landscapes, including mountain and valley areas, the desert, as well as city areas populated mainly by humans.
The owl that I want to concentrate on is the great horned owl. The owl is classified as a Eukarya because it has a true nucleus and possesses membrane-bound organelles. This is a very powerful bird and gets its name from the tufts of feathers on its head that look like horns. These tufts like they may be the ears of the owl,
…show more content…
As a result of this, there is no question that they have been around for millions of years. The concept of owl evolution is one that continues to fascinate people in the research department and has also been debated for a number of years. They want to find out what these animals used to look like. They want to find out what changes took place to them physically over the course of time to help them adapt to their environment.
When you are talking about the evolution of owls, you do need to understand that many aspects of it continue to be highly debated. It is amazing how some experts can look at the same evidence including DNA but come to completely different conclusions. Plenty of what is out there about owl evolution is only theories and speculation though. The lack of solid evidence to substantiate it makes it hard to swallow what is being offered.
It is believed that owls derived from various species of birds. In order to survive their bodies evolved to give them better eyesight and a body that was able to live in one environment all year long rather than having to migrate like other species of birds. As a result they where able to continue to become more different from their ancestors as time passed

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Mexican Spotted Owl The Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) has two other related species of the spotted owls which are the Northern and California spotted owls. Each spotted owl is located in their own geographic area and are considered to be tamed approachable birds by humans. During the day they sit on a tree branch in the deep shade and hunt during the night. The Mexican spotted owl can distinguished by its color, feathers and habitat location.…

    • 943 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Elf Owl Research Paper

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Diet Elf owl mainly eat insects like moth and insects that live in plants. They often…

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bald Eagle Research Paper

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The bald eagle has been recognized as the “national symbol of the United States since 1782”(Lee, Ray). The bald eagle is brown in color on the body and wings but is a pearly white on the head and tail. The American quarter and dollar bill both have the bald eagle symbol on them. The bald eagle means freedom to the American citizens. It has been “a symbol for native people for far longer than that” ("Bald Eagle Identification”).…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    There has been experiment on private land in northern California that has shown Spotted owls returned to historic territories in every instance where Barred owls were…

    • 1296 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bless Me Ultima

    • 1551 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Even though it is not directly said Ultima is the owl it is perceptible that the owl symbolizes Ultima’s soul. The owl is seen multiple times throughout the book soothing, protecting, or keeping watch over other characters in the novel. It has that sense of a positive connotation. Antonio explains how the owl alleviates his fears when he says “I realized that the owl had been with me throughout the night... Suddenly the terrible fear that had possessed me was gone,”(Anaya 23) and also when he mentions “ But not Ultima’s owl.…

    • 1551 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Boyd Hill Nature Preserve is now one of my favorite places in St. Petersburg! This field trip was a nice break from the fast-paced urban lifestyle that I have been living since moving away from home. Our excursion began at the bird-of-prey aviary. There were several types of birds at the aviary: eastern screech owls, turkey vultures, barred owls, great horned owls, and a bald eagle, to name a few. At the aviary, I learned that barred owls are best known for a call that sounds like, "Who cooks for you……

    • 286 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ho... HO, HO” (24). She talks back to the owl, “If that talk is owl, then I’m an owl, too. HOHOHO” (24).…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this case the Fish and Wildlife service did not list a spotted owl…

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dawkins Research Paper

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Dawkins says that people should believe in the theory of evolution without any proof. Since there are an existence of fossils, there are a certified tested proof of evolution. Fossil evidence of whales and turtles are talked about in this chapter. Dawkins does discuss in small detail the questionable crocoduck. Evolution clearly does not only rely on fossils.…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of An Owl Pellet

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages

    My results were very similar to others. They also found different types of bones in the owl pellets. We noticed that an owl’s diet varies from rodents, shrews, voles, moles, and birds. The only difference between our data was the types of animals that the owls had eaten at that time.…

    • 1194 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    I agree with the theory of evolution because there are many evidence for it. The evidence includes fossil record, species distributions, vertebrate development process and fossil layers and so on. First, fossil is very important for understanding biological evolution. It can tell us how the living creature evolved.…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ultima: Mother nature Tenorio: Devil/Devil’s figure 3. How are owls symbolic?…

    • 993 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There has always been much controversy over your theory of evolution; a theory that has lasted or almost 160 years, with not a single piece of evidence presented that disproves the fundamental validity of that theory. In fact, it is being supported time and time again by fossil records. However, thats not to say your theory is perfect. The point of a theory is not to be perfect. The ideas you have presented, however, are the best and most scientifically grounded ideas we have about the way species evolve and change.…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this metaphor, the owl is the wealthy, upper class, endlessly hungry for more money and being merciless and brutal to get it. The owls in the world seem to have no limit as to how low they will stoop to get their money or their kill and when they succeed their boastful shriek can be heard for miles around. Mrs. Oliver even further pushes this symbolism by saying “The world in which the owl is hungry and endlessly on the hunt is the world in which I live too. There is only one world” This shows the theme, common in her style of writing, that what happens in nature happens with…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the essay, “Evolution as Fact and Theory,” Stephen Gould defenses Charles Darwin’s theory of Evolution over the beliefs of creationist on God creating all organisms in the world. To further his support, he states his three arguments which are observational evidence, the imperfection of nature, and transitions found in fossil records to demonstrate that even though evolution is just a theory, there are plentiful evidence of facts that supports it. The essay was not just about justifying the theory of evolution to the creationist but also to reject the ideas of blindfolded views on scientific creationism. Throughout the essay, Gould acknowledges many of the major perspectives of the scientific world to support the theory of evolution that…

    • 1002 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays