If you’ve ever seen a big, ghostly bird swoop through the beam of headlights, you probably glimpsed an American barn owl. They often patrol roadsides as well as towns, cities and wild lands for ...

Nocturnal animals use a variety of senses as they hunt at night. For many, hearing has become the dominant sense. In the case of barn owls, their hearing has been enhanced thanks to the asymmetrical ...

CHAMPAIGN -- “Birds of omen, dark and foul,” wrote Sir Walter Scott about owls, once considered harbingers of doom, death, and destruction. In Medieval Europe, owls were thought to be witches and an ...

Some nights are predestined to be mysterious and frightening. On such nights, we are alone in a park, forest, vaulted cellar, warehouse, or big old house, perhaps a castle. It’s so dark that we can ...