Owls: A Guide to Every Species in the World

by Marianne Taylor

Discover the fascinating and mysterious world of owls with this stunning full-color, encyclopedic visual guide that explores all 225 known species, packed with maps, photographs, illustrations, informative scientific details, and a bonus 35½" x 12" accordion poster illustrated with the true-to-size wing span of the largest owl, overlayed with the wing span of the smallest owl and several owls in-between.

Humans have long been fascinated by owls. From prehistoric cave paintings to popular modern children’s stories, these magnificent predators have been seen as harbingers of good fortune and impending disaster, as icons of fear and wisdom, and as the powerful sidekicks of magic-makers, including the beloved Harry Potter. Scientists have faced tremendous challenges trying to document the lives of these solitary, nocturnal, and highly elusive creatures. New species are still being discovered, as are new insights into the habits of even the most familiar varieties.

Visually spectacular and authoritative, Owls includes full descriptions and maps of key viewing locations for all 225 owl species in the world, and is illustrated with drawings and stunning full-color images from some of the leading wildlife photographers from around the world which capture these birds’ breathtaking beauty and power. The book also features a special section on the art of hiding—a highly honed skill set of the owl.

Throughout, Marianne Taylor provides a wealth of detail on each type of bird’s hunting and breeding behavior, habitat, and conservation. Inside, are dozens of fun facts, such

Only nineteen of the 225 known species of owls are found in North America;Owls can be found on all continents except Antarctica;Owls, like humans, have binocular vision;Owls cannot turn their eyes, but are able to rotate their heads up to 270 degrees;Owls are carnivorous and are known to eat rodents, small mammals, nocturnal insects, fish, and other birds. Lavishly illustrated and educational, this breathtaking volume is essential for readers interested in natural science, devout birders, professional ornithologists, and all owl lovers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Animals, Birds, Nature, Biology, Field Guides, Science

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2012

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pleasing read for someone not already an owl expert and could be read by middle school and up. I would guess that most people would pick this up and read the early parts of the book and pick and choose from the rest. After the first 10% (general information on owls) I read only the parts about owls that I might ever find in North America. The latter part of the book lists and briefly describes all the owls, their habitats and includes pictures and a map showing the particular owl’s territory.

The introductory information was fine for my interests and I did learn new information such as with their fluffy feathered necks and largish heads it would appear owls had short necks. Actually the reverse is true. Their long necks allow them to turn their heads 270 degrees or flop their heads completely over onto their shoulders. You learn that these antics are necessary since owls have tubular eye lenses which afford great vision for distances and low light situations. The tubular lenses are fixed however and don’t allow for glancing around from a fixed position, thus the whole head must move.

I’m not sure of the author’s arrangement of the individual owls, her “Guide to Every Species in the World.” It is not alphabetical or by location. They are roughly grouped by families such as Scop- Owls, Screech Owls, or Fish Owls.

I just didn’t have the interest to read about every owl or the ones I have no hope of ever seeing. I did learn that owls are very wide-spread. I’m most familiar with North American owls and some owls from folklore. I had no idea that there are so many tropical owls and owls in deserts. I was also a little surprised to find that there are really very few types of North American owls compared to other parts of the world. An entertaining and beautifully illustrated book.

[Etienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great reference book. It has a small overview of the owls in the beginning and that it works like an encyclopedia or an atlas, with every species of owl, a small description of them, some characteristics, their location and a nice picture. There is a couple of species at the end that don't have picture, but a very few numbers compare to the massive lot of the book.

I also really like the full scale wing that you can unfold at the end of the book, that was impressive and what about the dust jacket! What a smart way to improve your book. If you take it off and unfold it, you have a nice poster, full color, of a life-size great gray owl, which is as beautiful as impressive! It sure will be impressive to children to see a owl almost as big as they are!

Very nice book, that I'm glad to have in my library to get back into from time to time, or just left un the coffee table to flip through.

[Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

DNF, mostly skimmed. Photography is absolutely gorgeous. Lack of range maps is a huge oversight. Great for general interest readers and those new to birding.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK,I didn't actually READ all of this book; its more of a reference work giving both general information on owls as a species(anatomy,folklore,etc.) and a few pages on each of dozens of types of owls(habitat,diet,etc.) Great photos! Very informative.

[Kelsey May · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic, informative book on owls in the Northern Hemisphere. I highly recommend it to birders and nature-lovers!

[Chris Leuchtenburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spectacular photos with a brief, comprehensive introductory section on the natural history of owls and a slightly longer section with a few pages on each of the 41 species in northern Eurasia and North America. After slogging through the somewhat wooden style of the first section, I had learned a little bit about owls that I didn't know, but I barely skimmed the species accounts.

[Monty Milne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The photographs in this book are absolutely outstanding. The text is good, although there is inevitably some repetition in the species-specific descriptions, given that so many owls have so many habits and characteristics in common. It is a great pity that there are no distribution maps. Nevertheless, this is a beautiful book, and well worth it for the photographs alone.

[Anup Sinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the authoritative owl book for both experts and just the curious layperson like myself.

Taylor does a good overview of owls in the first part of the book followed by an encyclopedia of all the different species. Most of them have pictures and thorough descriptions as well as habitat, size, and region information.

[Mark Nenadov · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extensive guide to the owls of the world, most of which I never heard of. Possibly because of the need to cover all the species in the world, I found some of the species accounts to be perfunctory and unsatisfying. I also found the range maps to be too small. Other than that, it was a good read and I found I learned about owl behaviour and diversity.

[Pam Hurd · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this contains a good overview of owls at the beginning it is a great reference book on owls. It contain many great pictures of a huge number of owls. The majority of the species are ones most of us can never hoped to see as they are rare and in many cases are only found in extremely remote areas such as tiny islands of the coast of a variety of continents.

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of this book "Owls: A Guide to Every Species in the World" is misleading. While this book does cover many of the well known breeds of owls, it does not contain every owl in the world. I have seen pictures of owls in handbooks that are not present within this book.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful photographs and packed with information.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now know more about owls than anybody on Earth.
I also now talk with a British accent, but that should wear off.

[Curt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pictures

[Amy Derwae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great photos & explanations of owl lifestyles!

[Robert Lewter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extensive

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful photos

Fun to read and informative. I found the chapters on individual species a little dry but still worth reading and occasionally humorous.