You may or may not have realised this but it is extremely rare to see an owl flying in the rain. Most people will not have noticed this because let’s face it, it’s not exactly common to see owls in general but for those who have noticed you may wonder… ‘can owls fly in the rain?’. To answer this question properly I will begin by explaining how the owls wings work and how this design affects their flying abilities when it comes to rainfall. Then I will discuss what owls tend to do in rainy weather and where you can spot them.
But first let’s answer the main question here… can owls fly in the rain?
The answer is, not very well. Owls really struggle to fly when the weather is extremely wet so generally owls will not fly in the rain. They can fly in mild rainfall but heavy rainfall will mean an owl will temporarily lose their ability to fly.
Design of an Owls Wing
The design of an owl’s wing is to facilitate for perfect silent flight because this is key to owls hunting success. Owls wings are very large in comparison to the owl’s overall size with a surface area that allows them to glide through the air more like an aeroplane than a bird so they can reduce the amount of flapping they need to do. Also, the owl’s feathers are perfectly designed to reduce noise. Their wings have what we call ‘primary feathers’ along the edges which muffle any sound by organising the direction of the air flow passing over them so that any turbulence created is silent. The turbulence created is broken down into smaller currents which we know as micro-turbulence and this happens by air being divided through the fine comb like feathers. The rest of the owls feathers also have a special function, those along the bottom of the wings are feathered so they can break sound waves as they pass over them and the remaining feathers (down feathers) absorb any remaining noise.
It has also been suggested that perhaps the design of these feathers creates a sound that is a few sound frequencies higher than it usually would be and therefore prey can no longer hear the sound anymore – cool thought right?
Ultimately though, the main thing we want to know in relation to our question ‘can owls fly in the rain’ is how this wing design affects their ability to fly in the rain. The answer is that the negative to the wing design is that it is not waterproof! This was the cost that owls had to pay for silent flight. Other birds tend to have waterproof feathers but they are unable to fly as silently as an owl. Owls sacrifice a preen gland that other birds use for waterproofing their feathers. The preen gland is located at the base of the tail and secretes an oil that repels water, the birds will spread this oil along their feathers when they preen themselves. Owls can get into all kinds of water related trouble due to their feathers not being waterproof, an example of this would be that sadly some Owls have been found drowned in animal troughs! They approach for a drink or a bath and then cannot escape due to waterlogged feathers. If you have an open trough for your animals, please fit a floating crate so the animals must push down for a drink to avoid owl casualties and deaths!
Risks of Rainy Weather
It seems crazy to me that owls, who are native to countries such as the wet and windy UK are not waterproof… what kind of evolution mistake was this?!
Rainy weather is very risky for owls for a few reasons:
- Their feathers become waterlogged making flying difficult and therefore hunting is impossible and owls may starve.
- Waterlogged feathers lead to body heat loss. This can lead to hypothermia death in owls, likewise these waterlogged owls may return to their nest and then sit on their owlets or eggs. This can lead to their owlets or eggs catching a chill or worse freezing to death.
- Much of owls main prey will seek shelter in wet weather meaning the owls are less likely to find prey even if flying is possible.
- Chicks that fall from nests can often manage to climb back up using their talons, wings and beaks but when they are soaked through in heavy rainfall this makes it almost impossible.
It has also been suggested that owls may avoid flying in the rain because of air pressure. Heavy rainfalls associated with storms arise from low air pressure, and low air pressure leads to less dense air. This is much harder for birds to fly in because it’s the air density that gives birds aerodynamic lift. Water in the air due to rainfall makes the air less dense.
What do Owls do while it rains?
Owls are limited with what they can do while it rains as they cannot hunt or fly. This means they spend most of their time perched in trees trying to stay as dry as they can and keeping as much body heat as possible. Hume (1986) described the classic bird in rain posture as ‘head withdrawn, bill pointed towards the rain, body rather upright and feathers sleeked’ this posture is said to be the most effective at keeping an owl dry if they do not have adequate shelter from the rain as it allows any rain to slide off, rather than penetrate into the owls body leading the heat loss.
Conclusion
Therefore, to conclude, owls cannot easily fly in the rain as they were generally just not built for it – how sad. But this seems to be a worthwhile toss up when we consider how incredible an owls silent flight is. The ability to fly silently makes the owl an incredible hunter and one of the skies most impressive predators so if they must hide from a bit of rain, they can usually rebuild their strength as soon as they are able to hunt again. If you want to try and spot owls during rainfall then keep an eye out in big branched trees where you might be lucky enough to spot one huddled up attempting to stay warm and dry!