Barn Owl Digestive System

When an owl eats its prey all of the bones and fur go into a special organ of the owl s digestive tract.

Barn owl digestive system. The owl s digestive tract is very similar to that of a chicken with gizzard and all that s used to grind up the swallowed food. Barn owls produce different things based on the various systems that make up their anatomy. Unlike other prey birds that like to tear small pieces of flesh off the. The spectacled owl s skeletal system is similar to most birds designed for walking and flying it is light and strong.

Due to that twice a day they cough up these things called pallets. They re usually 1 to 3 5 inches long cylindrically shaped dark colored and smooth. Swooping dropping o when an owl swoops which is what the majority of owls do if they are perching or searching it goes at its prey headfirst and then swings up its talons to go in for the catch. Barn owls are nocturnal meaning they go hunting at night.

Many of the bones that would be seperated in humans are fused in owls in order to support the owl s body weight on the ground. Owl pellets are soft and moist when regurgitated but dry out quickly. When a barn owl feasts on its prey the meal goes to the proventriculus where digestive enzymes are produced to break it down. O when an owl drops which is common in perching owls like the burrowing owl it essentially falls from where it is perching opening its.

There the fur and bones get piled into an owl pellet that the owl coughs up every once. Their skeleton makes up 7 9 of their total body weight. One system involved is the digestive system or more specifically the proventriculus. Some owl species will partially pluck birds and larger prey such as mammals.

However depending on the owl species and what he s eaten the pellets may be irregularly shaped and furry. The first part is the glandular stomach or proventriculus which produces enzymes acids and mucus that begin the process of digestion. Pellets collects the remains of four to five mammals which contains the evidence of what the owl might have eaten. They swallow there food whole.

The barn owl s diet is preferably small mammals such as bats rabbits rats mice and other rodents. A picture is worth more than a thousand words. Now a bird s stomach has two parts. Unlike other birds.

Most are tightly compacted but some are loosely formed. Meaning taking in the hair bones and everything. Since an owl lacks this food is passed directly into their digestive system.