Of the nearly 9,000 kinds of birds in the world, only about 150 are owls. In total numbers of individuals, they make up a small percentage of our birds, yet no group has been more entwined in man's history and folklore.
Owls are among the few birds depicted on cave walls by prehistoric man.
They were treated with religious respect by the Greeks and Romans, who credited them with great wisdom and knowledge. OwIs were also persecuted because they were thought to be omens of mischance and death. In medieval Europe, an owl hooting from a housetop at night meant the person inside was about to die. Owls have always been associated with witchcraft and Halloween. Witches used owls as instruments of death and destruction.