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How does an owl turn its head — and why doesn't its neck break?

Try turning your head without turning your shoulders. How much does it turn? A human can turn about 80 degrees. An owl can turn its head 270 degrees! That's almost three-quarters of a full circle. Imagine: it looks forward, then back, then forward again over the other shoulder, and its neck doesn't break!

Why is that? Nature gave the owl 14 cervical vertebrae. You only have 7, and a giraffe has 7. An owl has twice as many! This makes its neck as flexible as a rubber hose.

But there's another secret. When you turn your head sharply, the blood in the vessels of your neck constricts. In owls, the vessels have special "pockets" where blood accumulates so that the brain doesn't run out of oxygen even during the steepest turn.

And why does it have to spin like that? Because its eyes don't move! Yes, an owl's eyes are long tubes, firmly fixed in its skull. If it wants to look to the side, it has to turn its whole head.

But its eyes see in the dark 100 times better than human eyes. An owl can hear a mouse squeak 200 meters away - even under the snow! Its feathers are so soft that it flies completely silently. The victim doesn't even have time to guess.

The owl is a silent night detective with superpowers. It's not for nothing that in fairy tales it is considered the wisest.