Tonja Byrd, age 11, of Charlotte, N.C., for her question:

CAN AN OWL TURN HIS HEAD COMPLETELY AROUND?

    Owls have the reputation    of being very wise. This feeling has been gained, no doubt,    because most of the time an owl sits quietly and says nothing.  Probably because of  this, too, the ancient Greeks thought he was sacred. While the farmer now certainly considers the owl to be one of his best friends  because he eats rats    and mice  most experts agree that ravens, crows and geese are all smarter.

A total of 525 different kinds of owls have been identified by scientists. They range all the way from the great gray owl, who measures 30 in. tall and has a wingspread of 60 in., down to the elf owl who is less than 6 in. tall.

Among the owl's most outstanding features are his great senses of seeing and hearing. Unlike most birds who have one eye on each side of their heads the owl has a forward facing placement of the eyes, much like a human's. The eyes, however, are not too mobile in their sockets, and it is necessary for the owl to turn his head to change his field of vision.

In being able to turn his head in order to hear or see, the owl has a great advantage over most other birds: he can turn his head all the way around to face in any direction. He has an ability, actually, to turn his head a full 180 degrees.

There's an old backwoods spoof that says you can walk around an owl sitting on a treetop and that he will keep turning his head as he watches you until it is twisted off. This isn't true, although it almost seems possible. The head can make only one complete turn.

The owl's sharp eyes work especially well at night, and they work closely with his very sharp ears. Sound deadening filaments at the tips of the wings and contour features give the owl almost noiseless flight. A mouse walking along a path in the field can be both heard and seen by the owl as he swoops in silently for the catch.

Owls swallow their prey whole. Because they have strong stomach juices, they are able to remove all the nutrients from the mice or rats they catch. Indigestible bones, fur and feathers are then formed into neat pellets and are later coughed up by the owl. Since owls usually bring their prey back to a favorite perch to eat, they then sit quietly while the food is being digested and the remains regurgitated. And while waiting, they look wise.

There are two families of owls: the barn owls and the typical owls. Barn owls can be found from northern California and southern New England south to Central America. Typical owls can be found in most places in the world except in Antarctica and some of the isolated oceanic islands. The differences between the two are so slight that many ornithologists, especially those in Europe, put them all into a single family.