neither does the owl look like an owl
But it does. It's stylised, but it is certainly an owl, not a crow, a hawk, or a tit. As to the reddish brown bits, they match the colour of the pixel droppings in the bottom left of the cover, I think. Hard to say what was in the mind of the graphic designer...
Perhaps I wasn't clear. The red looks (I think) about as much like a bloodstain as the owl looks like an owl. That is: no one would mistake one for the other, but the resemblance is there and you can certainly take one as an indication of the other.
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