cold weather and a blanket of snow have left a short of food so she's been forced to hunt in the day and now she's got competition a Kestrel it's one of the downsides of hunting during the daylight hours and even worse the snow means she can't see her prey so how do you find your food when it's hiding out of sight hunger forces the Kestrel to take a chance but his razor-sharp eyesight isn't enough in these conditions luckily for the bar now she has another superpower in her on way flying blind won't stop her eating because although she can't see it she can hear her prey even under the snow the Kestrel simply doesn't have what it takes so how does an owls extraordinary hearing work some owls have ear tufts but these feathers aren't used for hearing they're more about communicating mood in fact the hours whole head is designed for listening its distinctive round face is shaped like a satellite dish specifically to detect sound a ring of stiff feathers channel the Sun towards the true ears which are hidden at the side of the face some species of owl have one ear opening higher than the other this unique adaptation allows the owl to work out what height a sound is coming from as well as the direction sound arriving at the left ear before it reaches the right tells the owl it's coming from below at certain frequencies an owl's hearing is 10 times more sensitive than ours this extraordinary skill means this great gray owl can locate its prey even when it's out of sight you