The eyes are fixed in their sockets, but the head can turn 180 degrees in either direction. The right ear is placed one inch higher than the left ear allowing for the owl to locate the direction of the sound. The ear holes are located beside the eyes inside the eye ring. The fleshy eye ring forms the outside of the ear holes. This appendage helps bounce sound vibrations into the ear.
Owls are the only birds that blink the way humans do, by lowering their upper lids.
When they go to sleep, however, like all birds, they close their eyes by raising their lower lids. Soft muffling flight feathers and a large wing area in relation to weight enables owls to fly in almost complete silence. The Great horned owl occupies a wider variety of habitats and has a distribution greater than any other owl. It is found in the northern boreal forests, the rainforest of Central America and the Amazon Basin, and coastal mangrove forests and desert regions of both North and South America. Great horned owls are typical nocturnal hunters, though occasionally they are seen in daylight.