this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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Why are owl hoots low-pitched? (midwest.social)
submitted 9 months ago by sxan@midwest.social to c/superbowl@lemmy.world
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There was an owl hooting outside our house earlier, and it occurred to me that every other bird has a high-pitched call.

Ravens have a croak that could be considered low, but their loud call is a caw that's higher. I can't think of another bird with a call nearly as low as owls'.

Search engines are no help, mostly duplicates answering why they hoot. Why are owls' calls so much lower than other birds?

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[โ€“] sxan@midwest.social 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is a lot of information to absorb; thank you for all the work in writing up a great summary!

I thought size wasn't a factor, considering eagles' high-pitched calls, and most interesting to me was the first quote:

it is physically difficult for an animal to produce a loud sound with a wavelength much larger than itself.

This is blindingly obvious... in retrospect. When I read it, I thought of musical instruments - a piccolo vs an oboe - but it was really interesting.

[โ€“] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

I thank you for bringing it up, I hadn't thought to read much about it before!

I still have some things bookmarked to read about it, but what I found to share with you was really interesting!