Owls are impressive fliers due to the incredible anatomy of their wings. Their wings are large in comparison to their body mass and therefore they can control the wind beneath their wings effortlessly, they also have light weight skeletons meaning they are fairly light for their size. This means an owl can fly quickly, slowly and silently – but when we say an owl can fly quickly, how fast are we talking? And are they fast on their feet? Can owls run quickly?
So, are owls fast?
The answer is yes, owls are quite fast when flying. An owl can fly around 40 mph at top speed and therefore they are able to hunt fast prey on the ground but they usually only fly at half this speed. On the other hand, owls are not as fast on their feet when running on the ground but are still quite impressive for their size. Owls have been recorded to run at speeds of 25 mph on the ground – pretty amazing right?
Owls are not extremely fast and they are by no means the fastest bird species, but they are designed to be cunning, effective and skilful hunters therefore they can reach quite high speeds at around 40 mph if they really need to. 40 mph has been documented for Great horned owls which are felt to be the fastest species of owl. As mentioned above though, owls usually travel at much slower speeds than this when casually moving around the skies, specifically when they are not hunting – this will usually be around 30 mph. Owls are also known to fly slowly, sometimes they fly between 2-3 mph just by silently gliding.
I have discussed in my other article, which can be found here about how owls can fly silently. To summarise, owl’s wings have feathers that are structured in such a specific way that they are able to silence any noise that passes through them. Their thin comb-like feathers located towards the end of their wings breaks through the air, the air then passes through the velvety feathers towards the outer edge of the feathers (unique to owls) which further silences the noise meaning that any turbulent air has been effectively stream lined. The ability to fly silently is the prime reason that owls are such great hunters and this is therefore vital to the survival of their species. As carnivores, much of their prey are difficult to catch as they tend to be fast rodents or smaller stealthy birds etc. This means that the ability to fly fast but also silently means they can easily catch their prey. The silent flight works alongside the owls speed to make them successful leaders of the food chain and their aerodynamic wings require less energy to produce speed meaning an owl can catch a hare with ease.
When we consider owl speed though, we don’t just mean in flight, we also want to consider how fast an owl can move on their feet on the ground. This depends on the size of the owl but some owl species, such as Burrowing owls, they have been known to run at speeds of 25mph! This is often with their wings out spread to their sides, it might be fairly wobbly but they still manage it! If you want to learn more about owl’s legs then check out my other article here.
Therefore, in summary owls can gather a fair bit of speed in flight and even on the ground but they are not the fastest bird species, and their excellent hunting capabilities depends on their silent flight equally as much as their stealthy movements.