Tawny owls are duetting in the trees at night, and sometimes in the daytime. The supposed “tu-whit, tu-whoo” sounds that are often used to describe the owl’s song are, in fact, a kind of libretto for the duet, since it is the female that produces the “tu-whit” note, while the male responds with his hooting “tu-whoo”. It has been found that healthier, stronger males have lower-pitched hoots, and more wavering ones, and that the females use this evidence to pick their mates.
You do not often get a good view of a tawny owl, though sometimes one flaps slowly and silently along a hedge in daylight, while others may be caught on the ground, looking startled, in a car’s headlights. If you do see one well, you are struck by the way the head seems to grow out of the body without any sign of a neck, and by the very large, very black eyes. The pupils in those eyes are almost twice as large as a human being’s, and the image the owl receives is twice as bright as the image a human gets. That is what enables the owl to hunt in the dark.
Moreover, owls do have a neck, and quite a long, muscular one, but it is hidden by the bird’s very loose, soft feathers. With that neck it is able to turn its head right round, and look behind it. The owl’s loose feathers also conceal an interesting fact about its ears. One ear is higher up the head than the other — and this makes it much easier for the owl to detect the source of a sound. So owls are very well equipped for their nocturnal life.
Tawny owls live mostly on field mice and shrews, and they cough up the fur and bones in firm, grey pellets, which you can find on the ground near their roosts. I once watched an unusual science lesson in a school. The enterprising teacher had collected some pellets, and the children were taking them to pieces, then using the bones they found to try to reassemble the skeletons of the mice that the owl had eaten. A very good education, both in owl behaviour and mouse anatomy!