Psalms 102:6

6. Like a pelican of the wilderness The idea is solitariness. The “pelican,” קאת , ( kaath,) though under some circumstances a social bird, is noted for its habits of retiring to solitary places to rear its young, also to devour its prey, when it will sit, for hours together, motionless. It is a water bird, large, clumsy; inhabiting lakes and swamps in desert or retired places. The word is translated cormorant, Isaiah 34:11; Zephaniah 2:14. In the law it is placed among the unclean birds. Leviticus 11:18.

Owl Another of the birds of solitary habits, called by the Arabs “mother of the ruins.”