These owl pellets come from the barn owl (Tyto alba) and were collected to help fund conservation efforts.

Unlike humans, owls regurgitate anything they can't digest. Since they don’t have teeth, they swallow their prey whole, and then their gizzard—a special part of their stomach—packs up the indigestible stuff into a pellet that they spit out later. Honestly, the idea of an owl with teeth is a bit off-putting, so maybe it’s better this way anyway.

Owls are very, very good hunters. They have special feathers that let them fly almost completely silently—that’s how they sneak up on prey without making a sound. And if you think that’s their only quirk, you’d be wrong.

Owls don’t have eyeballs—they have “eye tubes.” Unlike most eyes, theirs are shaped like tubes, which is why they can’t move them and have to turn their whole head instead. This, however, isn’t a disadvantage. Quite the opposite, actually. These unique eyes give them laser-focused depth perception, the ability to see extremely well in low light, and are perfectly evolved for their style of hunting: swoop in unheard from high above and snatch dinner out of the grass.

Point being—their pellets contain the remains of a day well spent hunting from the skies.