42 As they have no teeth, predatory birds like owls cannot chew their food. Instead, they rip their prey apart or eat it whole. This means that they swallow large amounts of indigestible bones, fur, and feathers. They regurgitate these items in the form of pellets. Pellets in open ground The pellets of the short-eared owl are cylindrical with rounded ends. This owl does not drop its pellets from a perch, but scatters them on tufts of grass. Rounded ends Rodent limb bone Blunt ends Smooth dark crust Beneath a roost The smooth pellets of the barn owl are often found in small piles beneath roosts in barns. Older pellet starting to disintegrate Recent pellet Pointed ends Bones and fur Tawny owls eat shrews, mice, voles, and smaller birds. Their smooth pellets often have pointed ends. Older pellets often crumble to reveal a mass of protruding bones and tangled fur. Beetle wing-case Protruding bone Earth and fur A varied diet These pellets are from little owls. The smaller pellets contain earth, produced by a meal of earthworms, and fur. The larger pellets reveal beetle legs and wing-cases among the earth and fur. Beetle leg Beetle wing- cases mixed in with plant material Shell fragments Seed-cases mixed with shell fragments Wader pellets Wading bird pellets often contain shell fragments. Crow pellets Crow pellets often contain insect remains and plant stalks. Seeds Metal foil Songbird pellets This songbird pellet contains metal foil among the seeds. Rodent limb bone Fur Falcon pellets Falcon pellets contain bird, mammal, and insect remains.