Owls
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91 free Owls trivia questions with answers — nature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free owls trivia questions with answers. Discover how much you know about one of nature's most captivating predators with our engaging owl trivia quiz. From their silent flight to their incredible hunting abilities, owls are remarkable creatures worthy of study. Test your knowledge with 50 challenging questions covering owl species, characteristics, and behaviors.
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Q 01What is unusual about how an owl's eyes sit in its skull?
They cannot move at all.
They cannot move at all: bony sclerotic rings hold each eye rigid in the skull, so an owl has to swing its whole head just to glance sideways.
Q 02Which large tufted owl with orange eyes has a wingspan that can reach about 1.8 metres?
Eurasian Eagle-Owl
The Eurasian Eagle-Owl is strong enough to kill foxes and deer fawns, though voles, rats and other small mammals make up most of what it eats.
Q 03What are the compact masses of indigestible prey remains that owls expel called?
Pellets
Because owls swallow prey whole when they can, the bones, fur and scales come back up compacted, which is why researchers pick pellets apart to study owl diets.
Q 04What collective noun is commonly used to refer to a group of owls?
A parliament
A parliament is the collective noun, though you would struggle to convene one: most owls are solitary birds that roost and hunt alone.
Q 05Roughly how far can an owl swivel its head in either direction?
270°
270° is the limit, not the full circle of popular belief, but it lets a perched owl look behind itself without shifting its body, so it stays still and quiet while it scans for prey.
Q 06Which feather feature helps most owls fly almost silently?
Serrated edges on leading flight feathers.
Serrated edges on leading flight feathers work like a comb, breaking the rushing air into tiny eddies and muffling each wingbeat, so prey rarely hears the owl coming.
Q 07What lets many owls pinpoint prey by sound alone?
Asymmetrically placed ear openings.
Many owls have asymmetrically placed ear openings, one higher than the other, so sound reaches each ear at slightly different times and volumes and the brain pinpoints prey in both planes.
Q 08What do most owls mainly eat?
Small mammals and insects
Small mammals and insects top the menu, rodents above all, which is why farmers put up nest boxes to recruit barn owls as pest control.
Q 09In Greek mythology, which goddess had the owl as her sacred animal?
Athena
Athena, goddess of wisdom, was pictured with a little owl at her side, and the bird still carries her name in science: Athene noctua.
Q 10What term describes female owls being larger than males in many species?
Reverse sexual dimorphism
Reverse sexual dimorphism shapes owl family life: the smaller male does most of the hunting while the larger female stays on the nest with the eggs and chicks.
Q 11Which owl has the largest facial disc of any bird of prey?
Great Gray Owl
The Great Gray Owl has the largest facial disc of any raptor, but its bulk is deceptive: thick, fluffy plumage makes the bird look far heavier than it really is.
Q 12What is the primary function of an owl's facial disc?
To direct sound waves to their ears.
To direct sound waves to their ears: the disc works like a radar dish, and an owl can reshape it at will with its facial muscles to home in on a faint rustle.
Q 13In Edward Lear's nonsense poem, what do the Owl and the Pussy-Cat go to sea in?
A pea-green boat
Q 21Which deep-hooting species is the most widely distributed true owl in the Americas?
Great Horned Owl
The Great Horned Owl ranges from the subarctic to South America and is one of the few predators that make a regular meal of skunks.
Q 22Most owls hunt at night, but some are busiest in the twilight of dawn and dusk; which term describes them?
Crepuscular
Crepuscular means active at twilight: pygmy owls hunt then, and even the barn owl, a byword for night, is most often seen quartering fields at dawn or dusk.
Q 23What is the translucent 'third eyelid' that sweeps across an owl's eye called?
Nictitating membrane
A pea-green boat carries the pair for a year and a day to the land where the Bong-tree grows, where a pig sells them the ring from its nose and a turkey marries them.
Q 14Owls form two families: the 'true owls' and which other, home to the barn owls?
Tytonidae
Tytonidae is by far the smaller of the two families, yet its barn owls have spread further than any other owl and rank among the most widely distributed land birds on Earth.
Q 15In A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, how does the wise Owl spell his own name?
WOL
WOL is how Owl spells it; Milne adds that, wise as he is, he goes all to pieces over delicate words like MEASLES and BUTTEREDTOAST.
Q 16What is the primary purpose of an owl's hoot?
To attract mates and defend territory.
Owls hoot to attract mates and defend territory. Each species has its own calls, which also help ornithologists and birders tell them apart.
Q 17What keeps blood flowing to an owl's brain during an extreme head turn?
Wide vertebral canals and joined arteries
Wide vertebral canals and joined arteries do it: the bony holes are about ten times the vertebral artery's diameter, giving slack, and connecting vessels link the carotid and vertebral arteries so flow continues during a twist.
Q 18When do most owls begin incubating their eggs?
After the first egg is laid
Most owls begin incubating after the first egg is laid, so eggs hatch in sequence and nestlings differ in age and size; in lean years the youngest chicks often starve.
Q 19What colour are a barn owl's eyes?
Black
Black eyes mark the barn owl, and at night it barely needs them: experiments show it can catch a mouse in total darkness by hearing alone.
Q 20The speckled brown plumage of the tawny owl lets it lie in wait unseen in which habitat?
Deciduous woodland
The tawny owl is a bird of deciduous woodland; its speckled brown plumage matches bark and leaf litter, so a roosting bird often gives itself away only by its calls or by mobbing songbirds.
The nictitating membrane wipes and shields the eye. Owls also sleep the opposite way to us: the upper lid does the blinking, but the lower lid rises to close the eye for sleep.
Q 24The barn owl is told apart from other owls by a pale face of which shape?
Heart-shaped
Heart-shaped and ghostly white: glimpsed gliding silently past a churchyard at dusk, that face earned the barn owl folk names such as ghost owl.
Q 25Owl chicks that leave the nest before they can fly, clambering about the tree, are known as what?
Branchers
Branchers leave home early: long-eared owl chicks quit the nest at about three weeks old, a fortnight before they can fly, and wait on nearby limbs to be fed.
Q 26What are the 'ear tufts' on large owls thought to be for?
Visual signals in social displays
Visual signals in social displays is one idea, camouflage another; the tufts play no part in hearing, and the real ears sit hidden at the sides of the head.
Q 27Which Disney film features a grumpy, highly educated talking owl named Archimedes?
The Sword in the Stone
The Sword in the Stone: Archimedes is the wizard Merlin's owl, and when Merlin turns young Arthur into a sparrow it is Archimedes who teaches him to fly.
Q 28What is the scientific order to which all owl species belong?
Strigiformes
Strigiformes is the owls' own order, but it was a late split: Linnaeus lumped owls with hawks, eagles and falcons in a single order of birds of prey.
Q 29What is the typical shape of owl eggs?
Almost round
Owl eggs are almost round and plain white: laid mostly out of sight, they have little need of the camouflage markings other birds' eggs carry.
Q 30Which long-legged owl sprints across the ground after its prey?
Burrowing Owl
The Burrowing Owl, a bird of open grassland and prairie rather than forest, evolved longer legs than other owls and will chase insects and small prey on foot.