Europe's most formidable owl

COVER STORY: OWLS

MORE than any other birds, owls are universally recognisable. Even a child can draw an owl. The bigeyed rotund bird is a universal image, familiar to everyone omnipresent in folklore art and literature. It has that round face with large eyes, which it blinks by moving the upper eyelid like humans and other primates, not like other birds. An owl's solitary nocturnal activities can make it resemble the human form on silent wings. (The silent wings are sound-proofed by feathers having velvet surfaces and frayed edges.)

For thousands of years, owls have been known as “witch birds”. In some cultures they were believed to be the reincarnated spirit of an ancestor (often with a score to settle). They are still shrouded in superstition