Superb Owl Meme: Owl Photos Are Flooding The Internet Before The Super Bowl | Cnn

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Superb owl. No wait, Super Bowl.

Too late.

Instead of Super Bowl information, one small typo later and your search results are filled with owl content instead. And we would like to encourage you to lean into the mistake. Because owls are truly superb.

These birds are a far cry from football, but over the years the trend has gained significant popularity. So much so that many people flood the internet with photos of owls every year before the Super Bowl. (And you know what an owl gathering is called, don’t you? A parliament.)

This Internet phenomenon puts these feathered creatures in the spotlight, which ultimately helps awareness, said Matt Williams, director of conservation with the Indiana chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

I say anything that helps spread the message about the importance of conservation is a good thing, she said.

Owls are quite interesting. Some people think they’re innocent hairballs, but that couldn’t be further from the truth, Williams said by email.

Owls are voracious predators that hunt primarily at night using a very keen sense of hearing to help locate their prey, he added.

Their puck-shaped face directs sound to their ears, which allows them to hear the quietest noises, Williams said. Their feathers are designed to make them almost completely silent when they fly, a useful trick for sneaking up on their prey, she added.

Most owls are content to feast on small mammals like mice and shrews, said Seth Magle, director of the Urban Wildlife Institute at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.

Some larger owls like the great horned owl may take rabbits, skunks or even other owls, Williams said.

Your owl experience doesn’t have to be limited to the internet. Communities across the United States have hosted educational events in previous years about nocturnal animals.

The Leslie Science & Nature Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan is hosting an event on owls on Sunday.

The center will exhibit resident owls and people will be able to dissect owl pellets, which are the undigested parts of their meal that they regurgitate.

Why not venture outdoors this weekend to learn about these fascinating creatures? It will be a hoot.

There are over 250 species of owls and we would like to introduce you to some of our favourites.

Many people think that all owls hoot, but that’s not the case. The great gray owl doesn’t hoot, Williams said, but rather makes a series of low-pitched hoots.

The long-eared owl can be found in grasslands and wetlands, unlike most other forest-dwelling owls, Williams said.

Barred owls are vocal birds that can often be heard making the traditional hooting, said Charles Eldermire, lead of the Bird Cams project at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Great horned owls are known for their iconic ear tufts and feline eyes, Eldermire said.

The burrowing owl lives its life the opposite of most owls. Rather than being active at night and living in trees, this bird spends the day awake and makes its home on the ground, Magle said.