Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(howl). An unclean bird and type of desolation. Five species found in Palestine (Lev. 11:17; Deut. 14:16; Psa. 102:6; Isa. 34:11-15).
Concise Bible Dictionary:
In the passages that speak of the unclean birds “the owl....the little owl....and the great owl,” are enumerated (Lev. 11:16-17; Deut. 14:15-16). The Hebrew for the first is bath yaanah. (See Ostrich.) The second is kos: it occurs in the above two passages and in Psalm 102:6; and doubtless refers to the owl. The third, yanshuph, occurs also in Isaiah 34:11. This in the LXX and Vulgate is the “ibis,” and has been supposed by some to refer to the Ibis religiosa, a sacred bird of Egypt. There is also lilith in Isaiah 34:14 only, translated “screech owl” (margin and RV, “nightmonster”); its reference is doubtful. Also qippoz in Isaiah 34:15 only, “great owl,” (RV, “arrowsnake”; LXX and Vulgate “hedgehog,” reading perhaps qippod with six Hebrew MSS.) There are several well-known species of the owl, but to which of them these various words refer cannot be specified with certainty. The Athene meridionalis is the owl most common in Palestine; the Strix flammea is the white owl.
Athene Noctua – The Little Owl (commonly found in Israel).
Tyto Alba – The Barn Owl (also commonly found in Israel).
Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:
Meaning:
from an unused root meaning to contract, i.e. spring forward; an arrow-snake (as darting on its prey)