When owls search for mice in a field, is that learned behavior of instinctive behavior?

Learned behavior = behavior LEARNED from parents, not behavior you are born with, you have to learn it .


Instinctive behavior= behavior that is inherited by parentsWhen owls search for mice in a field, is that learned behavior of instinctive behavior?
Small correction - learned behavior is learned not only from parents but also by your own experience in course of your life (depending how long your life is in many instances)


ABout owl learned skill to hunt - there are not much study about how parent owls teach young owlets to hunt. I strongly suspect there are very little studies published if any, but maybe someone knows anecdotal examples. There i sno doubt that owls learn to HONE their hunting skills (that were inherited in the first place) in course of their lives. I think they are very good at it.


Imagine if you were an owl how you would learn to zero in to mouse fussing below? You miss once, second time you'll do a little better





This whole idea of innate vs. acquired is complicated, owls are not THAT cut and dryWhen owls search for mice in a field, is that learned behavior of instinctive behavior?
Owls are fed mice by the parents. So they know what to eat. Owls, like cats, are born with the instinct to hunt. Nevertheless, they still need to learn what to hunt for food. They can only learn appropriate prey by individual experience. Young animals sometimes try to tackle prey that are too large for them. If they survive such attempts, then they learn from it. If not, then they are the byproducts of chance and/or natural selection.