Hedwig is Harry Potter's owl in the series, and a key player — but there's so much little-known trivia fans aren't aware of.

Harry has a lot of companions throughout the Harry Potter series. Ron to his left, cracking jokes and keeping him entertained and Hermione to his right, providing him with pointers in the right direction. Dumbledore is a mentor, Hagrid is a friendly father figure, and Dobby is an eternal protector. Hedwig, however, is arguably his most consistent and closest companion; the two met long before Harry, Ron and Hermione did, after all.

She might seem like nothing more than a strangely loyal owl, but there is a lot that even the most committed of Potter fans might not be familiar with.

10 She Could Deliver Post By Name

Owls are clever animals; everyone is well-aware of that. However, Hedwig shows an ability way beyond anything anyone could typically expect. One such task she performs with ease, very regularly, is being able to post mail without an address. Maybe she had been trained to know where each person lived? Well, no, because she was able to get mail to someone even when they were on the move.

9 She Flew To France

One particular example of Hedwig’s impressive ability to find and locate people came when she flew all the way to France in order to get Hermione’s birthday present to Harry. On the way back, she obviously somehow found out that Harry had made his way to the Leaky Cauldron, where she arrived within five minutes of him.

8 She Was Harry’s First Real Birthday Present

Under the ‘care’ of the Dursleys, Harry received some truly terrible gifts, and the ones we know about (the 50p, a toothpick, a tissue and a sock) all came after he acquired Hedwig. For all we know, he hadn't received a single real present since his parents died.

This meant that Hagrid’s gift to Harry was the first real, true, caring present he could remember anyone buying him.

7 She Wasn’t Fond Of Pigwidgeon

Aside from an incredibly brief Easter egg appearance on the shoulder of Ginny Weasley on the Hogwarts Express, we never got to meet Pigwidgeon in the flesh. He was an extremely annoying, tiny owl owned by Ron, and Hedwig was really not his biggest fan. As we knew that Hedwig was a rather proud, snobby animal, he didn’t take kindly to the bouncy, zippy actions of the younger, more childish owl he had to frequently associate with.

6 She Was Nursed Back To Health By Professor Grubbly-Plank

Dolores Umbridge’s reign of terror at Hogwarts eventually reached the point where she was able to invade the privacy of her students, as well as physically torture them. After intercepting Harry’s mail to see who it was he was talking to, Hedwig was injured and had to be taken care of by the Care Of Magical Creatures teacher, Professor Grubbly-Plank.

5 She Was Named After St. Hedwig

No matter what you think about JK Rowling’s terrible anti-trans views, it’s impossible to deny that she isn’t great at coming up with names full of meaning and reason. There are a few medieval saints who influenced the name of the snowy owl: Saint Hedwig Of Andechs, the patron saint of orphans (ahem!), and Saint Hedwig, who was Queen of Poland during the 14^th century.

4 Various Owls Played Hedwig

While the version of Hedwig we see throughout the films is rather consistent in appearance, there are actually multiple owls who performed the role of the character. The main, trained owl who performed most scenes was called Gizmo.

But there was a variety of stunt replacements, such as Ook and Sprout, as well as some other stand-ins who were used when other owls weren’t available. Apparently Ook was the first actor cast in the very first Harry Potter film.

3 And They Were All Male

Interestingly, all of the owls who took turns playing Hedwig were male. This meant that throughout the entire film, the appearance of Hedwig would have been very confusing for owl-experts, as their coloring is quite different. However, female snowy owls are much larger, so the smaller males were necessary for their use alongside children who would have to hold and interact with them.

2 Hedwig’s Leitmotif Is The Franchise’s Main Theme

You’d be hard pushed to find a person who isn’t familiar with the main theme of the Harry Potter franchise. Those twinkling first notes are able to bring out a whole range of emotions in people who grew up alongside the series, and even those who don’t appreciate the Wizarding World will acknowledge the beauty of John Williams’ score. Officially, this central work is known as ‘Hedwig’s Theme’.

1 JK Rowling Made A Lot Of Owl-Mistakes

JK Rowling has, since creating the character of Hedwig, apologized to her audience for her incorrect depiction of snowy owls. She explained that they fly by day, make very little noise (and when they do, it’s more of a barking sound than the hoots that Hedwig frequently uses to communicate with Harry) and they would never eat the bacon that Rowling claims Hedwig would nibble on after delivering the post at breakfast.

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