The Owl Family and Nomenclature

Comparative anatomy and cladistics have long been tools used to organize organisms into meaningful taxonomies, but they have their limitations, and Owls typify this.  The genus name came first, given by the great French Zoologist Andre Marie Constant Dumeril (January 1, 1774 – August 14, 1860) in 1805, using the Latin word bubo which meant a horned owl (pictured above) or eagle owl.

Two decades later, Swedish lawyer, naturalist and zoologist Gustaf Johan Billberg (14 June 1772– 26 November 1844) named the Family of barn owls the tytonidae, using the Ancient Greek name tyto (τυτο) meaning a barn owl.  

Two short years later, German herpetologist Johann Georg Wagler (28 March 1800 - 23 August 1832) named the remaining Owl Family the strigidae from the Latin word for screech owl, strix, strigis.  

Today all owls fall into the order of strigiformes, and scientists are using mithochondrial dna to sort owls (and many other organisms) into different species, families and orders.  There is an ancient order of extinct owls named paleoglaux, using the Ancient Greek word for common owl glaux (γλαυχ).  

In popular culture, members the owl family have been referred to as raptors, from the Latin verb rapere meaning to grab, seize, carry off, as most birds of prey swoop in and carry off their luckless meals.  The definition of raptor (also known as thieves-for snatching up their prey) was broad-birds of prey with hooked beaks-but recent science has moved owls out of the raptor grouping.

Great horned Owl Courtesy Andrew Nicholson used with permission under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0).

Image of barn owl courtesy Tony Sutton, used with permission under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0).

Eastern Screech Owl courtesy Michael Hodge, used with permission under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0).