The Owls Are Not What They Seem

Owls’ otherworldly aura—their keening more an atmosphere than an animal sound—has engendered human superstition: What better shorthand for sinister happenings than their ethereal calls? And yet owls have inspired an altogether different response as well. In antiquity, they were sometimes identified as “human-headed birds.” Their domed head, wide-set eye sockets (enabling binocular vision), and flat facial profile—distinctive within their biological class—are features that map onto a human visage. Whether the mythic depiction of owls as thoughtful, even philosophical, beings stemmed from this semblance alone, who can say?