Are Owls Dolphins?

[APugsLife]

I know this may seem like a silly question, but I was just wondering.

Are owls the dolphins of the bird world?

As in Dolphins are like fish, but they're actually mammals. Are Owls birds or something else? The look like a bird (like a dolphin looks like a fish...) but they move and behave differently.

[snags]

Twit.

Twoo...

[society]

Then humans must be the man of the Neanderthal world.

[mccfluff]

my owl makes me tea and tonight he's doing a beef borg for dinner, is that the kind of thing you mean?

[Graham-W]

Dolphins are very intelligent. Owls are not the brightest of birds, even though we call them "wise old owls".

[LazyGun]

Well dolphins are only superficially like fish; In most respects they differ from fish - from basic anatomy to reproduction to physiology.

Whereas Owls are similar in many respects to birds, especially raptors.The biggest difference between Owls and other birds of prey is that they have evolved to become nocturnal predators.

[APugsLife]

LazyGun - I'm not sure how many other birds are able to turn there heads all the way around as well? Which, like a dolphin, is why I thought that maybe they were something different, as they might have a physiological difference to a 'normal' bird. Although I don't know what else you would class them as.

[woofgang]

they can't turn them ALL the way around, just further than many other birds. Owls are the owls of the bird world.

[APugsLife]

woofgang -

[LazyGun]

@APL Their head rotation is a remarkable but not entirely unique feature of the owl family, as is nocturnal hunting, and the various evolutionary adaptations within the neck - so that they do not rupture blood vessels when rotating their head, for instance -are pretty remarkable. Other raptors can demonstrate very similar levels of mobility with their necks - the red -tailed hawk would be an example. And the reason why owls have adapted to have this neck flexiblity is because their eyes are largely fixed within their sockets.

Nice article on neck rotation in the national geographic;

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/02/06/how-owls-twist-their-heads-almost-360-degrees/

But that apart, their gross physiological features place them firmly within the bird family.

[LazyGun]

I think their maximum rotation is "only" 270 degrees :)

[jno]

humans can do that!

(bad language advisory)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSxuXQCEC7M

[APugsLife]

@jno - maybe we're all owls?