Some owl chicks in captivity have been observed sleeping face down, likely due to their living conditions or tiredness (as babies tend to be). Owl chicks hatch with neck strength capable of cracking their eggshell and the ability to lift their heads for feeding, so it's unlikely they couldn't hold their heads upright while sleeping.
In April 2024, a post on X (formerly Twitter) went viral with a claim about the way baby owls rest. "I just discovered that baby owls sleep on their stomachs cause their heads are too heavy and I can't stop laughing," the post read, accompanied by three photos of exhausted owlets.
The post had received more than 11.4 million views and 223,000 likes.
This claim is an internet favorite, and dozens of iterations of it have appeared online in different channels — here, here, here, here and here, for example. It was shared in a video on Reddit in 2021:
Baby owls sleep face down because their heads are too heavy.
byu/MousseSuspicious930 inDamnthatsinteresting
Snopes spoke with Denver Holt, researcher and founder of the Montana-based nonprofit Owl Research Institute, who said that while this behavior has been observed in owl chicks living in captivity, it is not common. We have rated this claim as a "Mixture."
"[Owl chicks] are certainly very capable of holding their heads up, but like every other species, as babies, they most likely get tired and sleep a lot," Holt said in an email.
Some owl chicks in captivity, like those featured in the social media posts above, will not exhibit their typical natural behavior. The first image, for example, showed a snowy owl, a species rarely seen lying completely flat with its legs outstretched "unless they are staying still because they sense a threat, it's sometimes a fear response," Holt said.
"In captivity, owls may not need to conserve body heat, like they normally do in the wild, so they may choose to lay flat, but normally they crouch with their legs up under them or lay on top of or under a sibling," he added.
Owl chicks emerge from their eggs with well-developed neck muscles that, in theory, allow them to keep their heads upright. For example, owl chicks have enough muscle to pound upward and backward with their egg tooth, located on the top of their bill, to hatch. Owl chicks also can hold up their heads for feeding immediately after hatching.
"[Owl chicks] generally lay with their head on the ground or in the nest, mostly with their chin up. However, most of the time, they are laying on each other or other things in the nest, so their heads are propped up," Holt said. "While [baby owls] have been seen sleeping face down, it's more typical to see them resting their heads on their chin flat on the ground."
Generally, owl chicks that sleep with their heads down will do so until they get ready to leave the nest, at which point they start sleeping upright.
Katie Gill Warner, center director at the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey, agreed with Holt, writing to Snopes in an email:
Baby owls when they are young lay down more often than adults. Not due to their head being to large or heavy, but they just flop down or over appearing that they are face down/head down. Owls are not the only baby raptors that sleep with their heads down, hawks do also as well as eagles, etc. They are exhausted because their little bodies are busy growing bones and feathers. This requires a lot of energy. They just pass out. In a nest, babies typically hunker down or appear laying down while their parents stay alert, look for predators, bring food, etc.
Adult owls typically sleep perched on branches with their legs tucked underneath, using their back toe, the hallux, to hold onto the branch. Holt said the hallux does not open or let go until the bird bends its leg.
Over the years, Snopes has looked into owl kinds of rumors involving the nocturnal birds of prey. From a questionable red owl with blue eyes and the supposed blue owl species to whether this rainbow owl was genuine or these two cute owlets were observed sitting in a tree together, we've had a hoot debunking online rumors.