Actually a lot of birds, if you can see their wing surfaces and feel them, they aren’t what you would call “soft” - they are brittle-feeling and stiff, like an airplane wing.
One thing I’ve noted with owls in flight is that they are very quiet and can turn on a dime. Some of them aren’t as “fluttery” as the ones in the woods here - these tend to be of the “screech owl” type. Big owls like barn owls are built more like large raptors and their feathers and wings are stiffer.
With fuzzy leading edges to break up sound.
I note that Burrowing Owls and Brandon, have many similarities!