THERE is no doubt that the best known family of birds is the owls.

Why should this be? I think there are two main reasons. The first is that owls are the only birds which move their head and large round eyes in a similar way to mammals and this gives them a friendly appearance.

This explains why we speak of the wise old owl and many children's toys have owl shapes.

The second reason for the interest in owls is that they are beautiful to look at and most of them are nocturnal which means that they hunt at night.

Some are however diurnal which means that they are active by day. A lot of owls are said to be crepuscular which means that they are active at dawn and dusk.

In Britain we have one very rare species which is the snowy owl but this does not breed here, being only a winter visitor to Scotland.

This leaves five species, each of which has had its problems caused by pollution and persecution. Pollution by farm chemicals has been reduced since the 1960s and persecution has also been improved in recent years.

Some owls have become rare in areas where they were once common, and this has led to the setting up of owl conservation areas. What these do is to provide hospitals for owls which have been injured - most being road casualties but some have flown into overhead electric cables.

Many of these birds are so badly injured that they cannot be released back into the wild. A one-winged, one-legged or one-eyed owl can still breed, however, and the young they produce are perfectly healthy. These can be released.

The five species of owls in Britain are each found in a different environment and this avoids competition between them.

The little owl, now common in Britain, is though to have been introduced from Holland round about 1875.

It prefers to lie and breed in areas where there are many stone walls and this explains why it is common in our area. We have lots of these in Lancashire and this owl also likes to perch on isolated trees, especially hawthorn.

Little owls tend to feed on insects although they will take small birds and mammals when they are hungry. Little owls do fly around during the day but they are mainly crepuscular.

The short-eared owl is the most diurnal of all our owls and hunts over our moorlands. The diet includes small birds, but the main food consists of short-tailed field voles.

Barn owls as their name implies breed around farms and they are very much a friend of the farmer because they feed on house mice and rats both of which do a lot of damage. Barn owls were badly affected between 1960 and 1975 when chemicals were used on the land without anybody knowing about the side effects. Modern chemicals are much safer.

Tawny owls prefer to live in deciduous woods or in town parks and they do not compete with the long-eared owls which thrive in large coniferous woods.