Specialized feathers of the owl enable near-silent flight by altering air turbulence and absorbing noise. Owls are known as silent predators of the night, capable of flying just inches from their prey without being detected. The quietness of their flight is owed to their specialized feathers.
Owl symbolism and meanings include wisdom, intuition, supernatural power, independent thinking, and observant listening.
The use of owl feathers, especially the all-white feathers from Snowy and Barn Owls, are used to prevent deception from entering the sacred circles. Owl feather also symbolized, in some tribes, death or prophecy. Prayer feathers are often tied around the foreheads of deceased tribal members during death rituals.
On Diwali night, tie an Owl feather and peacock feather together with a red thread and hang it at the main entrance. This remedy helps provide wisdom, good health, wealth, knowledge and prosperity to the family.
For example, a brown and white feather may mean you have to take the purity, cleanliness, or peace symbolized by white and the stability symbolized by the color brown, and combine them. White usually has holy meanings, so brown and white feathers can be a sign from your guardian angel promising to be there for you.
Is it legal to keep bird feathers? The simple answer is NO. However, there are exceptions to this rule, such as non-native species, domestic species, gamebirds collected with a hunting license, and other species not protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA).
The colors of owl feathers tend to be tan, brown, gray, rufous, and white. These muted tones help owls camouflage themselves against tree trunks and branches.
Owl feathers are soft allowing air to flow over nearly soundlessly. Hawks, comparatively, are soft to the touch and have “puffy” feathers that make them look much larger than their body.
The Native American peoples attach a number of meanings to the appearance of an owl, but owls are generally seen as messengers from the spirit world to humans. Among the Hopi people, owls represent a warning about sorcery. For the Ojibwe people, owls always warn of evil and death.
Reality: Owls are no more bad luck than black cats, broken mirrors, or spilled salt. In many cultures, owls are seen as bad luck or omens of death and are feared, avoided or killed because of it.
In ancient Egyptian and Celtic cultures, as with Hindus, the symbolic meaning reflects the Owl’s nocturnal aura as a guardian of the underworld and protector of the dead. Associations with darkness and evil may be misunderstood.
In most Native American tribes, owls are a symbol of death. Hearing owls hooting is considered an unlucky omen, and they are the subject of numerous ‘bogeyman’ stories told to warn children to stay inside at night or not cry too much, otherwise the owl may carry them away.
Many tribes across the country not only believe that owls have a correlation to death, but also the afterlife. Tribes such as the Lakota, Omaha, Cheyenne, Fox, Ojibwa, Menominee, Cherokee, and Creek consider owls to be either an embodied spirit of the dead or associated with a spirit in some way.
To this day, practitioners of Native American spiritual traditions hold that the owl represents vision and insight. The Pawnee view the owl as a symbol of protection; the Ojibwa, a symbol of evil and death, as well as a symbol of very high status of spiritual leaders of their religion.
Owl is considered one of the vehicles of Goddess Lakshmi (other being elephant, lotus, etc.) Owl is a nocturnal bird who sleeps for most of the day and is awake at night.
Some of the more common are:- Pheasants.
Most Pigeons.
Ruffed Grouse.
Turkeys.
Quail.
Chickens.
Bobwhite.
Eurasian Collared-dove.
Why You Generally Shouldn’t Keep Bird Feathers. Even though it’s usually safe to pick up bird feathers, it’s important not to take them home to keep. Native birds in the United States are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which prohibits possession of any part of these birds, including the feathers.
It’s a symbol of acknowledgment, that someone or something in the spirit world is looking out for you, keeping you safe and empowering you to whatever path you set upon. If you see a feather, your angel is near and they are reminding you that, with them, you are safe.
Finding feathers on the ground means special messages from dead loved ones and angels. You might have heard many stories of white feathers appearing out of nowhere. This especially happens after the death of a loved one.
Are you an outlaw if you have a bird feather collection? According to the Migratory Birds Treaty Act, it is illegal to own native bird feathers or bits of egg shells, even if you found them in your yard.
A law called the (U.S.) North American Migratory Bird Act was made a long time ago when people were killing too many birds to use for fashionable hats. It’s a broad-brush law intended to protect birds. It doesn’t recognize the difference between plucked feathers, shed feathers, or bird skins; you can’t have any of it.
You are permitted to collect feathers from non-native birds, such as European starlings and house sparrows, and domesticated birds such as turkeys and chickens, but all native, migratory birds — and there are more than 1,000 species on the list — are protected.
Birds in This Story- Northern Saw-whet Owls can travel long distances over large bodies of water.
Not all owls hoot!
Owls have adapted to nearly every ecosystem on the planet. They are quite specialized predators, having eyes and ears that are designed for hunting and unique feathers that enable them to fly almost silently. Owls hunt throughout the night in deserted places such as cemeteries, run-down farms, and other open areas.
Owls are not affectionate or friendly to humans, and they can’t develop such emotions. They are a lonely type of predatory bird, and their natural habitat is in the wild.