The Owls of Harry Potter | Laura Erickson's For the Birds Laura Erickson's For the Birds By Laura Erickson (a.k.a. “Professor McGonagowl”) (SPOILER discussion of Hedwig in Book 7—Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—is here .) No spoilers beyond this point: Now that five Harry Potter movies and all seven books have been released, people have become very familiar with owls. This website will give you facts about owls both in the real world and in J.K. Rowling’s magical world. I live in the United States, but Harry Potter lives in England. Some owls live in both places, and some are found on only one side of the pond. I’ve studied owls for a long time and read all seven Harry Potter books and seen the movies, but I simply couldn’t have written this and made it authoritative without a lot of help from a lot of people. If you have information I should add, corrections, or other comments, please email me . In J.K.

Rowling’s wonderful universe, owls bridge the magical and muggle world, carrying messages, packages, and even Nimbus 2000s with ease as they make it clear to muggles that when a message needs to get through, it WILL get through. One Snowy Owl named Hedwig also provides warm companionship when a lonely wizard named Harry needs it. If you have questions about owls, first look to see if you can find the answers here. If not, you can email Professor McGonagowl . As always, if you have questions, comments, or corrections, please let me know. To get more information, see: American Humane Association’s review of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Movie #5) (Thanks, Katty!) Hedwig Harry’s owl Hedwig is a Snowy Owl . She’s a female but, in the movie, the actors playing her are males. (One of the owls playing Hedwig was also the very first cast member to be chosen!!) You can tell that the owl playing Hedwig in the photo is really a male because his plumage is so white—female Snowy Owls have dark markings.

Females are also bigger and heavier, and so would be a little harder for human actors to handle. Healthy males average about 4 pounds, females almost 4 1/2 pounds. They have powerful talons. You can’t see in the photo that Daniel Radcliffe is wearing thick leather protection on his arm. Claws that can kill a large duck through thick feathers can be pretty hard on human arms, too, even when the owl is just trying to balance itself. Seven different owls played the role of Hedwig. Their names are Gizmo, Kasper, Oops, Swoops, Oh Oh, Elmo and Bandit. I found out some interesting things on The Pet Place site about Harry Potter . Real Snowy Owls live in the arctic tundra, in North America, Europe, and Asia. A few breed in the northern British Isles. Long ago, when the Arctic climate extended farther south than now, Snowy Owls lived much farther south. Cave art by Paleolithic people of Europe includes an etched outline of two Snowy Owls and their chicks on a cave wall in Ariege, France.

This particular prehistoric drawing happens to make the Snowy Owl the first recognizeable bird species to be depicted in art anywhere in the world. Snowy Owls are predators, and eat only animals, never plants. Their main prey species is the lemming, a fierce little rodent smaller than a chipmunk. Lemmings have enormous population fluctuations from one year to the next. When lemmings are abundant, Snowy Owls may eat hardly anything else. They usually swallow each lemming whole, head first, but if they’re not too hungry, they sometimes bite off just the head, or even eat parts in small bits. But when lemming numbers are down, Snowy Owls eat a lot of other things. Depending on where they live, they may eat a lot of snowshoe hares, grebes and ducks (especially Horned Grebes), ptarmigans, ground squirrels, rats, partridge, and even fish. When a Snowy Owl’s face gets gooped up with blood and guts, it sometimes cleans up by wiping its face in the snow.You can see more photos of wild Snowy Owls on my Snowy Owl flickr photostream .

Global warming is expected to hurt Snowy Owls over much of their range. Hedwig is lucky she lives in a magical world! Errol The Weasley family has a very clumsy owl named Errol. In the movies he’s a Great Gray Owl . I don’t think his species is actually mentioned in the books, but my friend Katty from Belgium found that he IS called a Great Gray Owl on J.K. Rowling’s Web site. Measured from head to tail, the Great Gray Owl is the biggest owl in the world. But even though they’re an inch or so longer than Snowy Owls and look just as big, they weigh much less than Snowy Owls—sometimes less than half! Also, their wingspan isn’t as long as that of Snowy Owls, probably because their wings don’t carry nearly as much weight. Great Gray Owls specialize on mice and voles, and have very thin toes compared to other huge owls. In North America, wild Great Gray Owls live in Alaska and much of Canada down to northeastern Minnesota, and down into the mountainous areas of Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

In Europe and Asia, they are found in northern Scandinavia, Russia, Siberia, northern Mongolia, Northern Manchuria, Amurland, and Sakhalin. They make it to Great Britain only in the magical world of Harry Potter. Real Great Gray Owls cannot carry very heavy items because they themselves are so light (usually less than 3 pounds!), and their feet are fairly weak. When I was taking care of injured birds, I once had to go rescue a Great Gray Owl that I then transferred to a raptor specialist. I had it for a little while, and was amazed at how innocuous its feet were. I normally took care of songbirds, so didn’t have the heavy gloves normally worn when doing raptor work, but this owl’s talons didn’t hurt my bare hands at all. Normally over 90% of a Great Gray Owl’s diet is one species—meadow voles. When they eat larger prey, such as rabbits and squirrels, they must sit on the animal for many hours, biting off small chunks of meat. The Weasley’s Great Gray Owl, Errol, is very clumsy. Real owls simply cannot crash the way Errol does in the movie.

Not even the owl actor who plays Errol could really crash like that—like other birds, owls have hollow bones and are much too fragile to slam into tables and windows. In the movie, they filmed a real Great Gray Owl flying gracefully through the Errol scenes. Then they substituted a dummy owl for the crashes. You can see many photos of wild Great Gray Owls on my Great Gray Owl flickr photostream . Pigwidgeon Pigwidgeon is so minute that some people have suggested to me that he might be a Little Owl , one very small owl found in England. This owl’s scientific name is Athene noctua, and it is fairly common in much of its range, in southern and central Europe and Asia, and northern Africa. Little Owls aren’t native to England, but were introduced there in the late 1800s. Little Owls are not found anywhere naturally in North America, but they are in the same genus, and closely related to, the Burrowing Owl. Like the Burrowing Owl, the Little Owl is found in open habitats, and is often active in the daytime as well as the night. The Little Owl often perches on posts and other look-outs.

Like most tiny owls, the Little Owl eats many insects, which it can catch on the wing. The Little Owl does have some interesting mythology of its own, being the sacred owl of the goddess Athene—that’s how it got its scientific name. And it is shown on coins from ancient Athens. But according to J.K. Rowling’s own website , and supported by Mary Grandpre ‘s lovely illustration in Chapter 22 of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Pigwidgeon is a Eurasian (Common) Scops Owl . This owl, even tinier than a Little Owl and more closely related to the screech owls of America, has “ear tufts”—feathers that stick up on the head and look like ears. The owl illustration for this chapter clearly shows those feather tufts. We hoped the moviemakers would use a scops owl when Pigwidgeon finally appeared, but he wasn’t in the movies at all, which has been a big disappointment to me and many others! What would Pigwidgeon sound like? You can listen to recordings of various species of scops owls here . Ron seemed resentful to have such a tiny animal compared to Harry’s Hedwig.

But we bet he didn’t have to work nearly as hard to clean up after Pigwidgeon as Harry did for Hedwig! Owl poop is smelly and messy. (Unless they’re magical owls—we notice that Harry’s black cloak never has a single white spot on it!) Malfoy’s Owl Malfoy’s owl is the largest, heaviest owl in Europe, an Eagle Owl. Eagle Owls are not found in the United States—they live in Europe and Asia. Eagle Owls are not native to Great Britain, but a few pairs have escaped captivity. Scientists hope they don’t become established in the wild in England because like all introduced animals, they will almost assuredly disturb the balance of nature already there. But in their native range these magnificent birds are an important part of that balance. Eagle Owls have oranger eyes than Great Horned Owls, are slightly larger, and have heavy, vertical streaks on the front, rather than the finer, horizontal barring of the Great Horned Owl. Again, notice how it perches with the two normal front toes facing forward. (The “thumb” toe and the back toe face backward).

Percy’s Screech Owl I didn’t pay enough attention to another owl—Percy’s! Fortunately, my friend Katty writes: In the Harry Potter Lexicon about owls, they mentioned a screech owl. And in chapter 5 of Prisoner of Azkaban, you can find: “…Percy’s screech owl, …” (when Rowling described the Weasleys, Hermione and Harry leaving the Leaky Cauldron.) Considering that my very own owl, Archimedes, is a screech owl, I really should have found this on my own! Other Owls Appearing Here and There Throughout the Harry Potter movies, there are lots of owls here and there. The owl shown in many of the posters, screensaver, and other promotional material for the movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, is a Great Horned Owl. This owl lives in North, Central, and South America, but is not found in the wild in England or any other place on that side of the Atlantic Ocean.

I don’t know if this promotional material was used in England, but it makes a lot of sense for an American owl to deliver invitations to the movie to people in Canada and the U.S. Notice that the owl has two front claws on each foot facing forward. Owls have three front toes and one back toe on each foot. But one of the front claws is opposable, and rotates backward the way we use our thumb. So the way this owl is carrying the letter to Harry is, indeed, exactly the way a real owl would carry mail. Notice that owls prefer air mail. In real life, large species of owls sometimes eat smaller species. Real owls are extremely stressed by being near other owls. But filming the scene shown above did not stress the owls. Why? This scene was filmed over and over, with different owls each time, and then the films were digitally manipulated to make it appear that all the owls were there together at the same time. Notes about the fourth movie: My friend Katty from Belgium, who is blind so notices a great many sounds I don’t pay enough attention to, writes: Yesterday, I saw the fourth film and was lucky to hear different owl sounds.

In this movie, we entered the owlery (not a circular stone room as described in the books, but it seemed to be located outside the school). I don’t know if you can see much of the owl species during this scene, but I heard the sounds of: little owl eagle owl snowy owl ???other species I didn’t recognise. They seemed to be very active, But I don’t know if it is evening or day in the film. During the film, you can hear other owl species, but I don’t know if you can see them. I heard: little owl (on the graveyard tawney owl The only species (and owl character) I didn’t see or hear was Pigwidgeon. Frequently Asked Questions Could a real owl really carry a Nimbus 2000? Snowy Owl often kill snowshoe hares and can carry them to their nestlings. A snowshoe hare weighs over 1 kilogram. I weighed one corn broom as 0.6 kilograms, so the weight of a real broom wouldn’t be a problem for a Snowy Owl. And a Snowy Owl’s talons can easily grip a broom handle.

So yes, a real Snowy Owl could really carry a Nimbus 2000. But the Snowy Owl in this scene simply flew through, and then the filmmakers digitally added the broom. This wasn’t too hard to do. In the arctic tundra, where there are no trees for Snowy Owls to bonk into in flight, they often dangle their legs in flight. So in this scene, the real owl’s legs are already in position to be carrying something. Tiny owls can easily carry mice, so letters and birthday greetings would be quite easy for them to manage. But according to The Pet Place : Although throughout the movie, it appears the owls carry messages and even the broom, they didn’t actually hold the objects. Instead, they were attached to the birds using an invisible harness. When they reached the right point, a trainer pulled a cord, which released the message or object. Also, notice that the broom that was delivered in the movie was really made out of paper. Can real owls be happy in cages?

The cage Harry often keeps Hedwig in is way too small for any real owl, and the tiny Victorian cage used in the movie would be illegal to keep an owl in either the U.S. or Great Britain. Great Britain requires all bird cages to be big enough to allow the bird to stretch its wings fully without touching anything. To keep it in anything smaller requires a veterinary certificate. But the owl playing Hedwig is probably used to a fairly small cage when he goes places, the way dogs or cats get used to a small pet carrier or kennel, as long as they don’t need to stay in it too long or too often. Are real owls ever active in the daytime? Owls that live in the Arctic, “the land of the midnight sun,” obviously have to be able to hunt in bright conditions. Snowy Owls can hunt by day or night. And some other owls are very diurnal—the Northern Hawk-Owl and the more tropical Pygmy-Owls are active in the daytime. Many owls are crepuscular—most active at twilight. And some are active ONLY at night—the tiny Saw-whet Owl and Boreal Owl are good examples.

My own little owl, Archimedes, reminds me of a cat. He’s active when he feels like it and sleeps when he feels like it, day or night. In the wild, Screech Owls roost and nest in tree cavities or nest boxes, and are very vulnerable to jays, robins,and crows in the daytime, but they need some sunshine to produce Vitamin D, so they spend much of the day with their head poking out of the hole. If a cranky robin or jay spots one, the little owl just retreats back into the cavity. Can people really have owls for pets? In the magical world of Harry Potter, a wizard or witch can own a real owl. In the real world, in England, people are allowed to keep owls provided the bird can be shown to be captive bred or found disabled and unable to be returned to the wild—in order to show owls for money or to breed them for sale, people in the U.K. need to have what is known as an “Article 10 certificate,” which functions much as a licence for the bird. In the U.S., keeping owls for pets is always against the law.

In the U.S., owls and all other native birds are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and cannot be possessed by anyone who doesn’t have legal permits for research or education, or in the case of an injured owl, legal rehabilitation permits. I have permits to keep one Eastern Screech-Owl for education. I first needed to prove that I have a good reason to use an owl for educational programs, and that I could provide healthy, safe, and comfortable housing and good food, in order to apply for a permit from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. I needed a permit from my state in order to apply for a federal permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. After I had both permits, I was allowed to keep one screech owl, but wasn’t allowed to take it from the wild. I had to find a rehabilitation center that had an owl that had recovered but couldn’t be released into the wild. I’ve had Archimedes since 2000. How can I see a real, live owl in the wild? Owls are secretive in the daytime, because they are often attacked by crows, ravens, jays, robins, and other birds.

If you’re walking in the woods or in a park and hear what sounds like exceptionally angry chickadees, or a large number of extremely loud crows, check it out! They may be mobbing an owl. At nighttime you can listen for owls, especially in late winter and spring. To hear how some owls sound, you can look at Journey North’s owl dictionary . Find out if your town or city has an Audubon society or other bird club. Most bird clubs have field trips, and will have experts along to help you see all the birds. And they might have some special trips just to find owls! How can I help owls? There are several things we can do to help owls. Buy your Harry Potter books from the Canadian publisher, Raincoast . This company prints all the Harry Potter books on 100% post-consumer recycled paper. This helps many kinds of owls because so much owl habitat is cut down to make paper. Don’t waste paper. Recycle paper when you’re done with it, and buy recycled paper. How does this help owls? On average, Americans consume 738 pounds of paper per person per year.

And much of this paper is wasted—over 40% of the trash Americans throw away is paper. That adds up to a lot of trees! And when forests are cut to make paper, it hurts the birds that require older forest growth. One way you can save paper is to stop getting junk mail. Four million TONS of junk mail is sent through the U.S. Postal Service, and half is never even opened. That is an enormous waste of forests. This website has information about simple things you can do to get less junk mail. Keep your cat indoors. House cats kill millions of birds every year. Rarely, a Great Horned Owls kills a cat, but since even the heaviest owl weighs only 4 - 5 pounds, owls are at a serious disadvantage when in a fight with a cat. Even if an owl survives an attack, a cat bite or scratch can introduce bacteria leading to lethal infections. Bird lungs are on the back, making them especially vulnerable to puncture wounds. Also, cats kill a lot of mice. Except in very urban areas where rats and mice are a problem for humans, house cats destroy a lot of valuable owl food, making it harder for owls, especially smaller species, to survive.

To learn more about the importance of keeping your cat indoors, see the American Bird Conservancy’s Cats Indoors campaign page. Don’t let your dog chase birds. When an owl kills a large prey animal, it sometimes spends several minutes on the ground eating. During this time, it can easily be killed or badly injured by a dog. We know of at least one screech owl that was grabbed by a dog, and the tiny owl’s wing was broken. If people had not noticed, it would have died, but now it’s in a rehab facility. Leave dead trees standing. If they absolutely must be cut, then to do it in the late fall/early winter to ensure no babies are in the nest. Put up a Wood Duck/Screech Owl box or a Barred Owl nest platform. It’s not a good idea to build both kinds close to one another, though! Support an owl rehabilitation center near you. In Minnesota, The Raptor Center does a great job of caring for injured and orphaned raptors. This page lists many other rehabilitation facilities. If you know of a place that is not listed, please email me . Join an organization that works to protect owls.

My favorite American organization that does research and education to help all birds is the American Bird Conservancy . The Rainforest Alliance protects tropical birds, including the many owls that live there. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds protects birds of the world with special emphasis on the United Kingdom. Don’t even think about having an owl for a pet. Owls are protected by law, so it’s illegal to keep them in captivity in the U.S. without a license. But at least as important, owls are wild, natural birds requiring a wild, natural life. In cages they simply cannot do all the things their bodies were designed for and their spirits require. Also, owls are not at all easy to care for: they need to eat whole rodents or other whole animals, which must be fresh, and their droppings are messy and smelly, requiring frequent clean-up. If you yearn to handle real, live owls, volunteer to help at a nature center or rehabilitation center. If you’re buying owl stuff, buy them from Owl Stuff. Proceeds from the Owl Stuff website go to conservation organizations.

Hedwig | Harry Potter Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia — Tom comments on Hedwig's intelligence [src] Hedwig (d. 27 July , 1997 ) was Harry Potter 's pet Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus). [3] In August 1991 Hedwig was purchased from Eeylops Owl Emporium and was gifted to Harry from Rubeus Hagrid on his eleventh birthday. Owls are used by wizards to deliver mail, but Hedwig was also an important companion as Harry was initiated into the wizarding world . She continued to be one of his closest companions until her death in the Battle of the Seven Potters in 1997. Contents Biography Purchase "Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing." —Harry Potter after receiving Hedwig as a gift [src] Hagrid introduces Hedwig to Harry in 1991 Rubeus Hagrid , who was in assisting Harry Potter in buying his school supplies bought Hedwig as a birthday present for Harry when they went to Diagon Alley together.

Harry was delighted and couldn't thank Hagrid enough, while Hedwig had already fallen asleep after leaving the shop. [2] This was the first birthday present Harry had ever received, as the Dursleys did not celebrate his brithday. He became quickly attached to her. Harry Potter's pet Harry decided on her name after finding it in A History of Magic . Before attending his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry , Harry routinely stayed in his bedroom with Hedwig, away from the Dursleys , since she was his only friend at 4 Privet Drive . [4] Throughout her life, Hedwig provided Harry with mail service, as well as loyal companionship. Hedwig often showed Harry her affection by gently nibbling his ears and fingers, and seemed fully capable of understanding his wishes (as she faithfully followed Harry's orders to peck Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger until they responded to him).

Hedwig with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley Hedwig was also highly intelligent, as she flew to France completely of her own accord while Hermione was on holiday there with her parents, just to ensure that Harry received a gift from her for his thirteenth birthday, later arriving at the Leaky Cauldron shortly after Harry stormed out of Privet Drive after a particularly bad argument despite the fact that she had been away and allegedly staying with the Weasleys when Harry left the Dursleys. According to the landlord, Tom , she arrived five minutes after he did. [5] She was also able to deliver letters even though there was no specific address given(only a name). Hedwig was a proud creature, and had a habit of staring or hooting "reproachfully," and showing Harry her tail, cuffing him with a wing, or even nipping him a little harder than usual if she was offended by his words or actions.

She also seemed fairly disdainful of the hyperactive behaviour of Ron Weasley 's pet owl Pigwidgion (Pig, as Ron called him) Harry having Hedwig deliver a message to Sirius Black While living with the Dursleys , Hedwig was locked in her cage for months at a time to prevent Harry from sending messages to his "freaky little friends." As a result, the first holidays after Hogwarts were a frustrating and boring time for her, as much as for Harry. When Harry was rescued by the Weasley brothers in 1992 , Hedwig was freed from her cage and flew along following behind the flying Ford Anglia all the way to The Burrow . In 1992 when Harry thought his friends had forgotten him, he mused that Hedwig was the only reason he knew that discovering the wizarding world had not just been a dream. Fortunately, her frustrated hooting during her first year with them convinced the Dursleys to subsequently let Harry let Hedwig out for flights so long as he didn't use her to send messages, though Harry sometimes ignored this rule and possibly began ignoring it entirely after meeting Sirius Black and gaining leverage with the Dursleys.

Snowy Owls are not native to Great Britain , and this caused some inconvenience, as she could not always perform tasks for Harry. Specifically, when Sirius Black was in hiding from the Ministry of Magic in 1994 , Harry could not send Hedwig to deliver messages to him, as onlookers would remember a Snowy Owl always going to and from a specific location, prompting a brief disagreement between the two when Hedwig resented being neglected in such a manner. During 1995 , she was attacked by associates of Dolores Umbridge when Umbridge tried to intercept Harry's mail, requiring Dobby and Professor Grubby-Plank to nurse her back to health. Battle of the Seven Potters and death "No... NO! Hedwig... Hedwig..." Harry Potter's Snowy Owl: Not Just for Wizards Harry Potter's Snowy Owl: Not Just for Wizards By Andrea Mustain | July 15, 2011 10:44am ET MORE Hedwig's cousin? A snowy owl glides over a northern landscape. Unlike many owls, snowy owls are active during the day. Credit: dreamstime.

With a mixture of elation and sadness, the Potter faithful will stampede to movie theaters this week, and, for the last time ever, request a ticket for Harry Potter. The release of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" marks the end of an era. But a new beginning has come for one of the creatures thrust into the cultural limelight by the beloved books: the snowy owl. Harry Potter's faithful snowy owl companion Hedwig sparked particular interest in the striking and very large white birds. As early as 2001, the BBC reported soaring demand for the birds as pets, thanks to their prominent role in the series. The attention possibly even triggered a recent owl crisis in India . But the news for snowy owls isn't all bad: Keepers at a zoo in Washington are saying hello to a brand-new addition, and one that carries a vague hint of Harry Potter magic. Whooo's hiding back there? A snowy owl chick, just a month old, at the Woodland Park Zoo. Credit: James Scott/Woodland Park Zoo. Bird beginnings Just in time for the movie's premiere, a snowy owl has been born at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.

The little owlet hatched on June 13, and is quickly growing, according to Tina Mullett, animal collections manager at the zoo. "It's growing really fast and doing really well and it's almost as big as the parents at this point, which is amazing," Mullett said. No wizardry is required for the owlet's astonishing growth. Snowy owls, native to the high north and the Arctic, nest on the ground, so the young must grow quickly in order to escape hungry predators. They're the heaviest of the North American owls; adults can weigh in at 5 pounds (2.2 kilograms), with a wingspan of up to 5 feet (1.5 meters). The owlet is the first for the zoo's snowy owls. The pair has been breeding since 2007, but, until now, had never produced a fertilized egg. With the serendipitous birth, it seemed appropriate to find out how well the fast-growing raptor stacks up to its fictional animal counterpart . In the wild, this snowy owlet would soon learn to hunt lemmings, the species' favorite food, on the cold tundra. Credit: James Scott/Woodland Park Zoo.

Bird background check "They're pretty intelligent birds," Mullett told OurAmazingPlanet. "They're really easy to train if you get them young." So could it be that among the cast of fantastical characters that populate J.K. Rowling's universe, a faithful and capable owl is one of the least far-fetched? Perhaps, according to Laura Erickson, someone uniquely positioned to know. Erickson, a bird expert and science editor for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, has a book on owls coming out this fall and is also a devoted Harry Potter fan. "I did the calculations and they could carry a Nimbus 2000," Erickson told OurAmazingPlanet. (For the uninitiated, a Nimbus 2000 is a flying broom Hedwig delivers to Harry Potter via her talons.) However, Erickson said, despite the species' innate abilities, the movies used CGI to place the broom in the snowy owl's talons. In addition, she said, the movies' Hedwig is in, er, owl drag.

All the owls used in the films were males; they're slightly smaller and nearly pure white, as opposed to females, larger birds whose white bodies are peppered with darker feathers. Erickson also said it would be entirely possible for the various owls described in the series to carry envelopes, the preferred method of communication amongst magic folk. "A message from a wizard would weigh no more than the kind of prey they would normally catch," Erickson said. And she can point to not only academic knowledge of owls' abilities, but firsthand experience. Erickson, dressed as 'Professor McGonagowl' with Archimedes. Credit: © Russell Erickson. Owlish companions Erickson has her very own owl. Archimides is an eastern screech owl a dainty species that closely resembles descriptions and illustrations of Ron Weasley's owl Pigwidgeon. Even Archimedes, a tiny owl, handily darts around with mice in his talons; thankfully, for the sake of his housemate, they never escape. "I buy frozen mice, pre-killed," Erickson said.

And in addition to the physical feats owls can pull off , Erickson said the birds' seemingly strong bond with humans depicted in the series is possible without the help of magic given the right circumstances. "They're very responsive birds," Erickson said. Many non-migratory owl species mate for life. "The ones that stay on the same territory do bond and stay together year after year," she said. Erickson's owl is so devoted he preens Erickson's hair. Yet if you'd like a faithful companion that can carry a broom, or, more likely, dead mice, you're better off in Harry Potter's homeland than the United States. With a proper license, owls and other raptors can be kept as pets in the U.K, but in the U.S., the practice is strictly prohibited. Erickson has a special permit that allows her to keep Archimedes for educational purposes. He nearly died as a baby, and, once resuscitated, was too imprinted with humans to return to the wild. Erickson is only allowed to keep the owl because she uses him for talks and presentations.

And although Archimedes is confined to a very large cage while in the house, Erickson does take her owl for walks. With a leash attached to his legs and her wrist, Archimedes wheeling overhead, the odd pair have become a fixture in Erickson's Duluth, Minn., neighborhood. Because of owls' significance in the Harry Potter series , Erickson has regularly put in appearances (in full witch getup) with each movie and book release, but this year, the calls have been sparse. Spoiler alert! {youtube YKfJkhda-IE} Hedwig is killed in the final book, struck down by an evil wizard's killing curse as she sits in her cage on Harry's lap. The two are aboard a flying motorbike, trying to escape a horde of evildoers. "I can't imagine that Harry would have brought her in her cage," Erickson said. "That seemed too stupid. This was the one case where I thought the movie did a far superior job of dealing with it." In the previous film, which recounts the first half of the final Harry Potter book, Hedwig is indeed aboard the flying motorbike, but uncaged.

When the attack comes, Hedwig flies in the face of the attacker, trying to defend her master. She is killed, but "while she's doing something heroic," Erickson said. "I thought as a character she deserved that." The Problem with Pet Owls - Harry Potter and Owl Pets By Lianne McLeod, DVM Updated October 30, 2016. With the immense popularity of the Harry Potter books and films, there is concern about interest in owls as pets. Harry Potter's snowy owl, Hedwig, is part pet and part personal messenger. Indeed, owls act as the primary postal service in the wizarding world made famous in the Harry Potter series. The loyal and friendly nature of the various owls as depicted in Harry Potter has led to some interest in keeping owls as pets. The characterization of animals in popular culture, especially when animals take on human-like personalities, often results in a surge in popularity of these animals as pets. Sadly, the end result is that people end up with pets that are ill-suited to their household -- and sometimes they might end up with animals that are just not good pets at all. About Owls The bottom line is that owls are not suitable as pets.

They are beautiful, majestic and awe-inspiring, but they are also large and powerful with extremely sharp talons. They require a steady diet of small animals (fed whole). They are not sociable, and need room to fly and hunt; in short they need to be the wild animals that they are meant to be. I've worked with owls, and they are amazing and wonderful animals. Just not good pets. It also bears mentioning that in the US, it is illegal to take most wild bird species (including owls) from the wild without a permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service (and in case you are wondering, permits are not issued for the purposes of keeping wild birds as pets). Similar regulations may exist in other countries. If you or your children have a new found fondness for owls in the wake of the Harry Potter craze, perhaps consider getting an stuffed snowy owl or a book about owls to learn more about them in the wild. Related Resources Owl | Harry Potter Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia —Description [src] Owls are birds of prey.

They belong to the families of Strigidae (typical owls) and Tytonidae (Barn Owls), and there are at least 200 species. They normally feed on small mammals, insects, fish, and other birds. They do not make nests, instead sheltering inside trees, ground burrows, caves, and barns, or using other birds' old nests. Normally, most British owls are nocturnal, and owls generally keep to themselves, but in the wizarding world they serve many needed functions and have many sorts of personalities. Owls also appear to understand magical people speaking English and can communicate with wizards and witches . Contents Postal workers Owl post Owls are enlisted to aid communication between wizards. Letters, parcels, and Howlers are all delivered by owls. Soft, hair-like edges on an owl's flight feathers reduce the noise of flight, coupled with their natural camouflage, making them ideal for delivering letters. [2] Owls must be trained to carry letters. Owls have a natural affinity to magic (unlike pigs , which are thoroughly non-magical), and thus can find the recipient of a letter without an address.

Because owls can find any witch or wizard who a letter is addressed to, those who do not wish to be contacted must cast Repelling, Disguising, or Masking spells, of which a wide variety exists. Owls are used for commercial purposes, such as the Owl Post Office in Hogsmeade, and delivering newspapers and magazines such as the Daily Prophet and The Quibbler . The Ministry of Magic formerly used owls for interdepartmental memos , but switched to enchanted paper aeroplanes because owls made too much mess with their droppings and shed feathers. Postal owls all have different jobs, but it is the duty of a Scops Owl for local deliveries only, as they are small and weak fliers. Known owls Behind the scenes Owl carrying a message During the production of the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , an attempt was made to train bats to carry letters, but this was abandoned because bats urinate during flight. It took trainers three months to train owls to carry letters for the films . In April 2009 , a falconer whose owls starred in the Harry Potter films admitted a string of animal cruelty offences.

[4] In many legends, owls represent death. But in other legends, like those of Ancient Greece, owls are a symbol of wisdom. In India, owls are birds of ill omen. In reality, the Brown Owl and the Tawny Owl are the same species (Strix aluco), but the Harry Potter books treat them as different types of owl. In an issue of The Quibbler seen in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince , an advertisement offering Owl-training can be seen, suggesting this is a business in the Wizarding World. At some point following the publication of the Harry Potter books , there was a series of media reports regarding an upswing in the popularity of owls as pets, allegedly as a result of people having read about them in the books. Author J. K.

Rowling stated on her official website "If it is true that anybody has been influenced by my books to think that an owl would be happiest shut in a small cage and kept in a house, I would like to take this opportunity to say as forcefully as I can: please don't." [5] In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, there are many owls trying to bring Harry Hogwarts letters. In the book, Harry first learns that owls carry letters when Rubeus Hagrid uses one in the Hut on the rock. It is unknown if, like humans, some owls are born with magical abilities, or if there is any other special rquirement for an owl to be trained as a delivery owl. The Pottermore Patronus quiz contains several types of owls including the Little Owl , Eagle Owl , and Snowy Owl . Appearances

Question: In the Harry Potter novels, what species of owl is Hedwig?
Answer: Snowy Owl