Owl

Owl
Species information
Feather colour	Various
Native to	Various, including Great Britain
Wingspan of average adult	Various
Mortality	Mortal
Distinction	Used in postal services and companionship
Affiliation	Owlery Owl Post Office Wizardkind
Status	Extant

"Owls are magical creatures most often used for delivering post and parcels in the wizarding world. They are known for their speed and discretion and can find recipients without an address."

— Description

An owl was a magical bird of prey.

Normally, most British owls were nocturnal, and owls generally keep to themselves, but in the wizarding world they served many needed functions and had many sorts of personalities. Owls also appeared to understand magical people speaking English and could communicate with wizards and witches.

Postal workers

Owl post

Owls were enlisted to aid communication between wizards. Letters, parcels, and Howlers were all delivered by owls. Soft, hair-like edges on an owl's flight feathers reduced the noise of flight, coupled with their natural camouflage, making them ideal for delivering letters.

Owls had to be trained to carry letters. Owls had a natural affinity to magic (unlike pigs, which were thoroughly non-magical), and thus could find the recipient of a letter without an address. Because owls could find any witch or wizard whom a letter was addressed to, those who did not wish to be contacted must cast Repelling, Disguising, or Masking spells, of which a wide variety existed.

An owl carrying a message

Owls were used for commercial purposes, such as those used for the Owl Post Office in Hogsmeade, and for delivering newspapers and magazines such as the Daily Prophet and The Quibbler. The Ministry of Magic formerly used owls for interdepartmental memos, but switched to enchanted paper aeroplanes because owls made too much mess with their droppings and shed feathers.

Postal owls all had different jobs, but scops owls were enlisted for local deliveries only, as they were small and weak fliers.

It was not merely wizards who could use owls to send and receive post - some goblins, such as Lodgok, also made use of these mail carriers.

Several types of owls were possible Patronus forms, such as the little owl, eagle owl and snowy owl.

Known species

• Barn owl
• Barred owl
• Brown Fish owl
• Brown owl
• Eagle owl
• Eastern screech owl
• Great grey owl
• Little owl
• Red Owlet
• Scops owl
• Screech owl
• Snowy owl
• Spectacled owl
• Tawny owl

Known owls

An owl used by Minerva McGonagall

• Artemis
• Hedwig
• Errol
• Hermes
• Pigwidgeon
• Hawk-like owl
• Draco Malfoy's eagle owl
• Temeritus Shanks's owl
• Longbottom family's barn owl
• Brodwin
• The numerous post owls from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
• The numerous post owls from the Owl Post Office in Hogsmeade
• The members of the Egyptian Owl Union
• The Owl Airforce

Behind the scenes

• During the production of the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, an attempt was made to train bats to carry letters, but this was abandoned because bats urinate during flight.
• It took trainers three months to train owls to carry letters for the films.
• In April 2009, a falconer whose owls starred in the Harry Potter films admitted a string of animal cruelty offences.
• It is unknown if, like humans, some owls are born with magical abilities, or if there is any other special requirement for an owl to be trained as a delivery owl. It is a popular fan theory, however, that the delivery owls are magical owls, which would explain their apparent greater intelligence (such as their understanding of addresses spoken in English and their occasional character quirks,) though they admittedly do little to demonstrate sentience in the series proper.
• In many legends, owls represent death, but in other legends, like those of Ancient Greece, owls are a symbol of wisdom. In India, owls are birds of ill omen.
• In reality, the brown owl and the tawny owl are the same species (Strix aluco), but the Harry Potter books treat them as different types of owl.
• In an issue of The Quibbler seen in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, an advertisement offering Owl-training can be seen, suggesting this is a business in the wizarding world.
• At some point following the publication of the Harry Potter books, there was a series of media reports regarding an upswing in the popularity of owls as pets, allegedly as a result of people having read about them in the books. Author J. K. Rowling stated on her official website "If it is true that anybody has been influenced by my books to think that an owl would be happiest shut in a small cage and kept in a house, I would like to take this opportunity to say as forcefully as I can: please don't."
• In the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, there are many owls trying to bring Harry Hogwarts letters. In the book, Harry first learns that owls carry letters when Rubeus Hagrid uses one in the Hut on the rock.
• In real life, owls are no smarter than any other bird; with some considering them to be of low intelligence, as a large portion of the head is taken up by the eyes. However, intelligence is not solely determined by brain size, and owls are arguably indeed clever in their own right.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (First appearance)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (film)
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (film)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (film)
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (film)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (film)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (video game)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Appears in portrait(s))
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (play)
• Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (film) (Appears in portrait(s))
• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
• Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
• Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore: Movie Magic (Mentioned only)
• Quidditch Through the Ages (Mentioned only)
• Pottermore
• Harry Potter (website)
• The Queen's Handbag
• Harry Potter Trading Card Game
• The Wizarding World of Harry Potter
• Harry Potter: The Character Vault
• Harry Potter: The Creature Vault
• Harry Potter: A Pop-Up Book
• Harry Potter: The Wand Collection (Mentioned only)
• LEGO Harry Potter
• LEGO Harry Potter: Building the Magical World
• LEGO Harry Potter
• LEGO Creator: Harry Potter
• Creator: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4
• LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7
• Harry Potter for Kinect
• Wonderbook: Book of Spells
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery
• Harry Potter: Wizards Unite
• Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells
• Harry Potter: Magic Awakened
• Hogwarts Legacy
• The Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac

See also

• List of known letters
• Eeylops Owl Emporium