I find Owls to be fascinating examples among the Avian species! My favorite is the Great Horned Owl, with its big face and giant eyes that can stare right through you! Whenever I'm at a place that has animals and birds on display, (petting or regular zoo), I'll spend a lot of time in the Avian exhibit exhibit with the Owls. When they look at you, they look right in your eyes. (Well...so do other animals, so no big deal !) Hal
Yes they do seem to be able to have the ability to look at you as though they're looking with disdain.. I am wiser , cleverer than you human, but I'll act like you are of use to me...
We had to fight off a Great Horned Owl a few days ago to save our chickens. It had killed a mother duck (wild) earlier in the day, leaving the young ducklings to fend for themselves; most will probably die too. We occasionally have them attack humans here.
Although I grew up on a farm, and have spent quite a lot of time in the woods, I have never actually seen an owl in the wild or even around the farm. I know we had owls around in Michigan and here in Maine, because I have heard them, but I have never seen one. Of course, this has been at night, when it tends to be dark, at least unless you live in parts of Alaska.
I was told by a biologist that owls are often studied in Alaska, because they would starve if they were not active in the daylight. We do hear them and seldom see them unless they are taking our livestock.
When I was a kid we didn't see owls very often but we did come across the undigested food pellets that they spit out after a meal. The pellets are kind of gross but still fascinating to a young country bumpkin.
The only owl I ever actually saw was in town a few years ago, just about sunset, a hoot owl. It was being chased by two little birds. I've heard them a lot. In Ohio we used to hear screech owls at night from the land behind our house. Sounded like a woman crying for help. Creepy. (around 0:50)
We had owls around our barn, I know, because I would hear them when I went out there at night sometimes, but I never saw one of them.
We have small ground dwelling owls here and lots of them see them often and hear them at night. Someone gave me one that they got. I had a cage outside on the ground. At night other owls would come and bring food for the one I had. I felt so bad I just released it back to the wild. They are quite common here.