ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Owl and Mice Bird of Prey Nature Craft for Kids

Updated on September 22, 2013

Learn About Owls and Mice

Owls are a favorite bird of prey for children to study. Its signature eyes and keen hunting ability make it endlessly fascinating. There are many interesting facts associated with owls, some of them true, others not true.

Myth That Owls Can Turn Heads Around Completely

Owls appear to turn their heads completely around 360°. The truth is, it only looks like they can do this. While it is true owls can turn their heads up to 270°, it isn’t all the way around. Owls have holes in their vertebra that are 10 times larger than other animals. This allows their blood vessels traveling through these holes greater ability to move without damage, which is one reason they can turn their heads so far. Also, owls eyes are not round like a ball, but are shaped more like a tube. Because of this fact, owls cannot move their eyes in their sockets. This is another reason they turn their heads around so far.

Owl Sounds

Owls do make the classic hoot sound, although I’ve never really been able to hear the ‘t’ sound at the end. The sound is more like ‘who’, which is also closely associated with owls. There really is a type of owl called a screech owl. It does make a haunting sound, especially if you are alone in the woods at night!

Here is a clip of the sound that screech owls make.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/eastern_screech-owl/sounds

Sometimes Owls Need Help

This is a clip from a bird rescuer. He narrates as he speaks and it includes many interesting facts and tidbits about bird rescue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGoqK-XJ7DA

Owl with Owlets

Are Owls Wise?

Owls are famous for being wise. This probably derived from the fact that they are able to wait patiently until it is just the right moment to attack their prey. Legends about owls are in Greek, Celtic and Native American mythology. The owl is connected with Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom. Athens is named from the goddess Athena and its emblem is the owl.

Because of their wise reputation, the following children’s poem has been around for centuries about owls:

A wise old owl lived in an oak
The more he saw the less he spoke
The less he spoke the more he heard.
Why can't we all be like that wise old bird?

Fuzzy Feet and Late Nights

Owls feet are often covered with feathers all the way down to their claws. Most birds have featherless claws.

Owls are nocturnal, meaning they spending their waking hours during the night. However, I myself have seen owls out during the day. The owls I have seen during the day have been out during the winter and it is usually in the late afternoon.

My Favorite Owl Books

Owl Babies
Owl Babies
This is a great book for pictures of owls. Very sweet.
 

For a fun activity, especially in the fall. Read the book Owl Moon Jane Yolen for an enchanting story about owl hunting on a winter’s night. It is my favorite owl book. If you want to see pictures of owls, try the book Owl Babies by Martin Waddell.

Have you seen an owl in the wild?

See results

Owl Pellets

Owls are unable to digest bones,fur and feathers. They will compact these items into a ball shape and eject it from their throat. These are called owl pellets. Sometimes entire creatures, like a field mouse, can be reconstructed from the bones inside of an owl pellet.

An Owl Pellet

Owl Pellets Available

How an Owl Hunts

One fact of life that makes for a good food chain lesson is to talk to children about what owls eat. Owls are predators and they will hunt for anything smaller than them. Skunks, fish and crayfish are all menu items. Even cute things, like rabbits and mice, can make a meal for an owl! Most owls like to sit on a branch or other perch with a good view. It will swoop down when it sees something, stretch out its talons and grab it. The force of the impact stuns the prey. It will often take it somewhere else to eat or to feed its young. Sometimes owls drop straight down on their prey, only opening their wings at the last moment.

Collect Items to Make an Owl and a Mouse

A great activity to do with children is to read some books on owls, then take a nature hike. While outside, you can collect things to create nature art animals for a food chain hunting scene. When collecting, always follow the 20 to 1 rule: for every 20 things, only take one item. So, if you see 20 pine cones, you can take one (as long as you are on your own property and not a nature preserve or protected area). If you see 40 of something you can take two things, 60 three things and so on.

Things to collect for this project include a pine cone, an open milkweed pod, two acorn caps, maple helicopter (also called keys or samaras), 3 to 6 small seeds for eyes and beaks and noses, a leaf stem or something for a mouse tail, two grass seed heads to make fuzzy owl feet. You can also use long, slender flower heads to make the feet.

Create an Owl from Natural Items

Mouse as Prey for the Owl

Craft Away

A cute idea is to collect some smaller pinecones to make owlets. I haven’t done this yet, but I’ve seen them. What you do is stuff a little pine cone with white fluff. You can get the fluff from milkweed pods or from dandelions or use fabric stuffing. Set the pinecone on the wide end and put the acorn cap eyes up near the pointy end.

I just used regular white glue to stick the items onto the pine cone and milkweed pods. You can make this more permanent by using hot glue, with adult supervision. When I taught this lesson to a group of students, they just jammed the items into crevices and cracks and made everything stick without using glue. A true nature experience!

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)