Barn Owl: Frozen Dinner

Have you ever played hide and seek at night? The glowing full moon can reveal your hiding spot, especially if you are wearing white. It seems intuitive that darker colors mask your presence in the moonlight. However, the common barn owl, Tyto alba, flies in the face of that idea. This owl sports varying colors ranging from red to white. Scientists studying the barn owl’s nocturnal hunts have been puzzled to learn that the birds with white feathers are more successful than their red counterparts at catching prey on moonlit nights.

The bright moonlight reflects off the owl’s white plumage, making it more conspicuous than a red owl. Voles, the owl’s main prey, spot the white owls more quickly than they spot red owls. When they spot an owl, the rodents’ natural tendency is to freeze in place (nature’s version of frozen dinners). But what has bewildered researchers is that the voles that spot white owls remain frozen an average of five seconds longer than those that spot red owls, making them easy targets for a swooping owl.

Before the fall, owls would not have hunted voles or needed to stun prey with the brilliant reflection from their feathers. But this owl does reflect the brilliance of our Creator, who built into the bird’s genetic code a variety of feather colors so it could survive in our fallen world.

This article was taken from Answers magazine, July–September, 2021, 20.