Animals, Plants & Seasons 3-minute video · ages 4-8 · free coloring page
How do owls fly so quietly?
Pigeons go flap, flap! Owls make no sound. How do owls fly so quietly?
3 min
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Free coloring page
The scene from the video as a coloring page, plus the three-sentence answer, the experiment, and a QR code back to this page. One sheet, US Letter, black and white.
The answer in three parts
Why?
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Comb edges.
The first feather on the front edge of an owl's wing has tiny teeth, like a comb! The comb splits the air into lots of tiny streams, so it can't make big noisy swirls.
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Frilly edges and velvet fuzz.
The back edge of the feathers is soft and frilly, like the fringe on a scarf, so the air slips away gently. And the feathers are covered in soft fuzz, like velvet, that keeps them quiet.
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Big wings, slow flaps.
Owls have big wings for their little bodies, so they don't need to flap hard or fast. They can glide, slow and smooth. And slow flaps make less noise.
For grown-ups: Owls find their food at night by listening, and little mice in the grass are very good listeners too. If they hear an owl coming, they hide! Wing noise comes from air swirling around the edges of a flapping wing; big swirls make big noise.
Four quiet secrets
- Comb edgessplit the air
- Frilly edgeslet the air slip away
- Velvet featherssoak up little sounds
- Big, slow wingsless flapping
A tiny experiment
Try it!
Paper or scarf?
You need: a piece of stiff paper and a soft, fuzzy scarf
- Wave the stiff paper fast through the air. Do you hear a whoosh?
- Now wave the fuzzy scarf the same way.
- Which one is quieter?
What happened? That's the owl's velvet trick!
Did you know?
People learn from owls! Engineers gave some fans and fast trains edges like an owl's feathers, to make them quieter.
Your guide in this video
I'm Hoo, the little brown owl. Pigeons go flap, flap! Owls make no sound.
Hoo is a little brown owl with big round eyes. Hoo also tells you why owls hoot.
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