00:00When a pigeon takes off and flaps its wings, you hear it, loud.
00:03Same with the peregrine falcon, flapping like a jet engine.
00:06But then comes the barn owl.
00:07Not a single sound reaches your ears.
00:09So let's test it with a super sensitive microphone.
00:12Here's the spike when the pigeon flaps.
00:13Here's the falcon, big spike again.
00:15Now the barn owl.
00:17And nothing, dead silence.
00:19Why?
00:20Two reasons.
00:20First, barn owls have soft, fringed feathers along their wing edges,
00:25breaking up air and killing the turbulence that makes flapping loud.
00:27Second, their wings are huge compared to their bodies.
00:30So they don't need to flap hard to stay in the air.
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