Owls Overhead LEVELED BOOK •

A Reading A–Z Level I Leveled Book

Word Count: 281
Owls
Overhead

I•L•O
Written by Karen Mockler

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 Photo Credits:

Owls
Front cover: © Manfred Danegger/Science Source; back cover: © Brian Bevan/
ardea.com; title page: © Kim Taylor/Minden Pictures; pages 3, 11: © Wayne Lynch/
All Canada Photos/Superstock; page 4: © Stephen Dalton/Minden Pictures; page 5:
© M. Watson/ardea.com; page 6 (left): © Markus Varesvuo/Minden Pictures;
page 6 (right): © Henrik Nilsson/Solent News/Rex/Rex USA; page 7 (top): © age

Overhead
fotostock/Superstock; page 7 (bottom): © Claus Meyer/Minden Pictures; pages 8
(main), 9 (inset): © Arterra Picture Library/Alamy; page 8 (inset): © All Canada
Photos/Alamy; page 9 (main): © Rolf Nussbaumer/Minden Pictures; page 10: © Ron
Austing/Frank Lane Picture Agency/Corbis; page 12 (top): © Steve Maslowski/
Visuals Unlimited/Corbis; page 12 (bottom): © Larry Miller/Science Source; page 13:
© Tom Mangelsen/Minden Pictures; page 14: © Harri Taavetti/FLPA/age fotostock;
page 15: © Steve Allen/Dreamstime.com

Front cover: Barn owl

Back cover: Little owl

Title page: Tawny owl

Written by Karen Mockler

Owls Overhead
Level I Leveled Book Correlation
© Learning A–Z LEVEL I
Written by Karen Mockler
Fountas & Pinnell I
All rights reserved. Reading Recovery 15–16
www.readinga-z.com DRA 16
www.readinga-z.com
 Boreal owlets

Table of Contents
Flying in the Moonlight . . . . . . . . . . 4
Eyes for the Night . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Tawny owl
Even Better Ears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Silent Hunters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Flying in the Moonlight
Where Owls Live . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 It’s a moonlit night. A dark shape
Owls Are Out There . . . . . . . . . . 14 floats over you and into the trees.
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 It’s an owl!
Owls Overhead • Level I 3 4
More than two hundred different
kinds of owls live around the world.
The way they look and act helps
them survive.

Northern hawk owl Burrowing owl

Eyes for the Night

Owls can’t move their eyes, so
they turn their heads. Owls can
turn their heads almost all the way
around. They can even turn their
Long-eared owls
heads upside down!
Owls Overhead • Level I 5 6
 Owl skull

An owl’s pupils are small in bright light (top) and large in low light (bottom).
Upper ear Lower ear
Owls have very large ears, but their
Owls have big eyes, but they ears are hidden under feathers.

can’t see in total darkness. They Even Better Ears

see better in low light than most Most owls use their hearing to hunt.
animals, though. That’s because of Owls have huge ears. On most owls,
their pupils—the black circles in the one ear is higher than the other.
center of their eyes. Their pupils Owls can hear prey that’s hiding
can grow large to let in more light. in grass or snow.
Owls Overhead • Level I 7 8
Owls, such as this barn owl, often crush their
prey. The grip of some owls can be ten times
stronger than a person’s grip. Owl pellet

Barn owls can hear a Pellets! A saw-whet owl flies silently through the trees.
Owls can’t chew their
mouse and catch it in food. Instead, they often Silent Hunters
swallow animals whole.
complete darkness. A part of their stomach Owls must attack by surprise if they
rolls unwanted animal
Barn owls have the parts into small balls want to eat. The soft feathers that
called pellets. A few
best hearing of any hours after they eat,
cover their bodies help them fly
owls cough up a pellet.
animal. without a sound.
Owls Overhead • Level I 9 10
 A barn owl raises its young in a barn.

Where Owls Live

Some owls can live in many
different places. Other owls cannot.

Great horned owls are great hunters. They can even catch another bird An Owl’s Housekeeper
that is flying. Screech owls hunt snakes. However,
they bring the blindsnake back to their
The main food for most owls is small nest alive. They let it go inside the
nest, where it eats the bugs that
animals—lots of them. In its lifetime, feed on the dead animals stored there.
The snake becomes a housekeeper!
a barn owl may eat 11,000 mice!
Owls Overhead • Level I 11 12
 People take pictures of a great gray owl, the largest owl in the world.

Owls Are Out There

People don’t see owls very often,
Spotted owls but they are out there. Go out
at sunset and listen for their calls.
Spotted owls can only survive in
If you stay out too late, people
old forests with huge trees. Many of
might think you’re an owl.
these forests have been cut down.
Today, few spotted owls are left. A night owl, that is.
Owls Overhead • Level I 13 14
 Glossary
attack (v.) to act harmfully
toward (p. 10)

darkness (n.) the state of having

little or no light (p. 7)

hearing (n.) the sense that allows

some living things
to receive sounds
through the ears
Owl Sounds (p. 8)
Owls aren’t always
quiet. They all make
different sounds. A hunt (v.) to kill animals for food
great horned owl can
bark like a dog and (p. 8)
meow like a cat. Barn
owls don’t hoot—they
scream.
prey (n.) an animal that is
hunted and eaten by
another animal (p. 8)

Barn owl survive (v.) to stay alive (p. 5)

Owls Overhead • Level I 15 16