Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:
(howl). An unclean bird and type of desolation. Five species found in Palestine (Lev. 11:1717And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, (Leviticus 11:17); Deut. 14:1616The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, (Deuteronomy 14:16); Psa. 102:66I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. (Psalm 102:6); Isa. 34:11-1511But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. 12They shall call the nobles thereof to the kingdom, but none shall be there, and all her princes shall be nothing. 13And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. 14The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. 15There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. (Isaiah 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. 11:16-1716And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, 17And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, (Leviticus 11:16‑17); Deut. 14:15-1615And the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, 16The little owl, and the great owl, and the swan, (Deuteronomy 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 102:66I am like a pelican of the wilderness: I am like an owl of the desert. (Psalm 102:6); and doubtless refers to the owl. The third, yanshuph, occurs also in Isaiah 34:1111But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness. (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 34:1414The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. (Isaiah 34:14) only, translated “screech owl” (margin and RV, “nightmonster”); its reference is doubtful. Also qippoz in Isaiah 34:1515There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate. (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:
Transliteration:
liyliyth
Meaning:
from 3915; a night spectre