I saw an owl in a tree last night as we arrived home. I got out and walked up to it to get a better look, but I couldn’t tell what kind it was. It was about six inches tall and when I got about ten feet away it turned to look at me with its wide, round, open eyes and then jumped off the tree limb and flew away. It looked a little like this. Traditionally, owls can be either good omens or bad. Usually, if you see one in your house or in against your window it traditionally portends the death of someone you know. Otherwise, it is a general messenger omen since an owl’s wisdom is that it can see what others cannot.
Funny you say that, since all the birds of the corvidae family (crows, ravens, rooks and magpies) have all been proven to be much smarter than owls. Of course, all of those birds are connected to superstitions, too.