--- title: Owls of the world: barn owls, eagle owls, elf owls and burrowing owls — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Owls of the world: barn owls, eagle owls, elf owls and burrowing owls», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: There are about 250 kinds of owl, and they live on every continent except Antarctica. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Owls of the world: barn owls, eagle ow… # Owls of the world: barn owls, eagle owls, elf owls and burrowing owls Lesson 301 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/0/) — There are about 250 kinds of owl, and they live on every continent except Antarctica. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/1/) — Some are as big as a toddler, some as small as a sparrow, some live in holes in the ground and one wades into rivers for fish. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/2/) — Picture a barn owl at dusk, floating low over a field. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/3/) — Its pale heart-shaped face works like a satellite dish, gathering the tiny rustle of a vole in the long grass towards its ears. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/4/) — At the other end of the scale the Eurasian eagle owl, with wings almost two metres across, can catch hares and even young foxes, while the elf owl of the desert weighs about as much as a sparrow and eats moths and scorpions. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/5/) — Owls are real wild hunters, not the wise teachers or post carriers of stories and films, and each kind fits its own home: the snowy owl the Arctic tundra, the burrowing owl the open grassland, the fish owl the old forests along rivers. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/6/) — There are about 250 kinds of owl, split into two families: the barn owls and the typical owls; owls live on every continent except Antarctica. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/7/) — A barn owl's heart-shaped face works like a satellite dish, gathering sound towards its ears; barn owls hunt mostly by ear, and in experiments they caught mice in total darkness. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/8/) — Barn owls do not hoot; they give a long hissing shriek, and white owls shrieking from church towers at night gave rise to many ghost stories. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/9/) — The Eurasian eagle owl is one of the biggest owls, with wings about 1.6 to 1.9 metres across, and it can catch hares, ducks and even young foxes; its tall ear tufts are only feathers, not ears. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/10/) — Blakiston's fish owl of the Russian Far East and Japan is one of the heaviest owls; it grabs salmon with rough, spiky soles and needs old hollow trees by rivers to nest in, so it is rare. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/11/) — The elf owl of the deserts of the USA and Mexico weighs about 40 grams, about as much as a sparrow, often nests in old woodpecker holes in saguaro cactuses and eats moths, crickets and even scorpions. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/13/) — Burrowing owls spread animal dung around their burrows; the dung attracts dung beetles, which the owls eat, a kind of bait and tool use. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/14/) — Snowy owls are wild birds of the Arctic tundra that hunt lemmings, often in daylight; after popular films some people bought pet owls and later abandoned them, bird charities reported. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/15/) — The «twit-twoo» of a British wood is usually two tawny owls, one calling «ke-wick» and another answering «hoo-hoo-oo»; a tawny owl pair may stay in the same wood for life. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/301-owls-of-the-world-barn-owls-eagle-owls-elf-owls-and-burrowing-owls/16/) — Owls have four toes on each foot, and the outer toe can swing forward or back, so two can point forward and two back in an X-shaped grip; the osprey can do the same trick. - ← previous: [The big biology quiz, part 3: dinosaurs, evolution, conservation and food](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/300-the-big-biology-quiz-part-3-dinosaurs-evolution-conservation-and-food/) - next →: [How owls work: silent wings, turning heads, pellets and owl myths](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/302-how-owls-work-silent-wings-turning-heads-pellets-and-owl-myths/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)