McGowan says there’s evidence to suggest our earliest ghost stories may have been inspired by the silent fliers. “Their eyes just aren’t where you think they ought to be.” Owls swivel their necks because they can’t move their eyes inside their eye sockets. “That really comes out with those freaky little youngsters,” says McGowan. Predators, on the other hand-think jaguars, owls, and, yes, humans-have eyes on the front of their head. Most prey animals-think other sparrows, deer, and rabbits-have eyes on the side of their head so they can easily swing their neck around and spot whoever is hunting them. The owl’s eyes tell an incredible evolutionary tale, too. If you look closely at a barn owl’s face, you’ll notice it’s divided in half.īarn owls have excellent hearing, and their entire face, McGowan says, is constructed not unlike a giant set of ears, built for funneling sound into their aural opening. Most people would be right to assume that owls would have a round, spherical face, but they have a flat skull, which is compressed on the side. “Their faces are so freaky, too,” McGowan says. “They start off looking kind of freaky and they stay that way until they get fully feathered.”īut what makes these particular owl chicks look so strange? Why do we have such a visceral reaction to them? And will we ever be able to sleep at night again? “Baby barn owls are some of the freakiest-looking creatures on Earth,” McGowan says.

With renewed interest in the monster birds, Popular Mechanics reached out to ornithologist Kevin McGowan of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to find out what makes them look so sinister. When the video first hit the internet in 2017, multiple sources reported that construction workers stumbled across the scraggly birds, known as eastern barn owls, at a site in Visakhapatnam, capital of the south-eastern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

(I showed the video to one friend, who replied: “That cannot possibly be real.” Others have displayed similar skepticism online.) If you’re not entirely convinced that the hissing trio are indeed birds, you’re not alone. The camera pans up through a hole in the ceiling to reveal. You’ve probably seen this viral video circulating on Twitter.

Creepy tale 2 owl