All About Owl Pellets

And why you should give a hoot about them

- PURBITA SAHA

A tight ball of fur and A bones lies in the leaf litter under the evergreens-a telltale sign that an owl is nearby. The nocturnal raptors cough up these grisly artifacts at their roosts once a day. After snatching up a rodent or fellow bird, they swallow their prey whole, squeezing together the indigestible bits in their gizzard and discarding what's called a pellet. Or in other words, owl puke.

Birds such as hawks, kites, herons and cormorants can cast pellets too, says Eres Gomez, the research coordinator for the Urban Bird Project in San Antonio, Texas.