Owl

Owls (order Strigiformes) are a group of around 200 species of mostly nocturnal and solitary birds of prey that are typified by an upright stance, large head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons and feathers adapted for silent flight. Owls occur on every continent except for Antarctica. The owls are divided up into two families – the true owls, Strigidae, and the barn owls, Tytonidae.

## Appearances in Dorling Kindersley Vision media

### See How They Grow

In See How They Grow, the Woodland Animals episode has one of its four segments about the life cycle of a tawny owl, with another appearance in the mouse segment. A tawny owl also appears in the fox segment of Wild Animals.

### Eyewitness

A total of six Eyewitness episodes have a species of owl appear (one of them a making-of episode). The season with most episodes that include an owl is Season Two, with three episodes. Seasons One and Two have just a single episode with an owl.

* **SEASON ONE**: Bird
* **SEASON TWO**: Desert, Tree, Butterfly and Moth
* **SEASON THREE**: Sight

Also of note is that a barn owl was supposed to appear in the Tree episode, but was cut after it refused to settle in the Eyewitness studio. It is not known if it was replaced by the tawny owl or was supposed to appear alongside it. This event is shown in The Making of Eyewitness II – Living Earth.

The episodes that do have an owl in them tend to only have one or two species – the episode with the most owl species depicted is Sight, with a total of three species. In Sight, a barn owl is also the hero of the episode, flying around the Eyewitness Museum and partially helping to drive the narrative.

None of the owl species that appear in Eyewitness are unique to the series, with all of them making other appearances in different series.

### Amazing Animals

A total of sixteen Amazing Animals episodes have a species of owl appear. The season with most episodes that contain an owl is Season One, with six episodes. This is followed by Season Four with five episodes, Season Three with three episodes and finally Season Two with two episodes.

* **SEASON ONE**: Animal Disguises, Nighttime Animals, Animal Survivors, Animal Senses, Animal Weapons, Mini-Beasts
* **SEASON TWO**: Birds of Prey, Scary Animals
* **SEASON THREE**: Animal Hunters, Animal Neighbors, Creepy Crawly Animals
* **SEASON FOUR**: Around the World, Polar Animals, Underground Animals, Woodland Animals, Animal Flight

Of the sixteen episodes, thirteen of them have only one or two owl species appear in them. The three episodes with more than this are Woodland Animals, with four different owl species and both Nighttime Animals and Birds of Prey, which are in shared first place with nine owl species in each.

A number of owl species appear only in Amazing Animals, including the burrowing owl, long-eared owl, snowy owl and African spotted and Verreaux’s eagle owls.

As well as the real owls, Amazing Animals also features a cartoon Owl. She is one of the rarest cartoon characters in the entire series, appearing in only a single cartoon in Woodland Animals.

### Creatures Fantastic

Of the Creatures Fantastic episodes so far discovered, three have owls appear. Creatures of the Night has four species appear (the barn, Southern white-faced, great horned and tawny owls), solely as stock vision. The episode touches upon how the owl was seen as suspicious by many societies and how it was often considered a portent of death.

Spirits of the Forest briefly includes footage of a spotted owl in flight, but it does little to drive the narrative. It should be noted that the VHS cover box for this episode also includes a near-transparent image of a pair of tawny owlets.

While the full episode has not been found yet, the trailer for Birds and Things with Wings includes within it footage of a barn owl.

## Total species

A total of 15 owl species have appeared across all the Dorling Kindersley Vision series:

* Barn owl, *Tyto alba*
* Little owl, *Athene noctua*
* Burrowing owl, *Athene cunicularia*
* Southern white-faced owl, *Ptilopsis granti*
* Long-eared owl, *Asio otus*
* Snowy owl, *Bubo scandiacus*
* Great horned owl, *Bubo virginianus*
* Eurasian eagle owl, *Bubo bubo*
* Bengal eagle owl, *Bubo bengalensis*
* African spotted eagle owl, *Bubo africanus*
* Pel’s fishing owl, *Scotopelia peli*
* Verreaux’s eagle owl, *Ketupa lactea*
* Tawny owl, *Strix aluco*
* Spotted owl, *Strix occidentalis*
* Great grey owl, *Strix nebulosa*