Though they play different roles, Augury Owl is very similar to Magma Jet. Magma Jet has a very basic effect (2 damage) and scry 2 tacked on. Augury Owhl has another basic effect (French Vanilla, 1/1 Flyer) plus scry 3. The manacost seems really fair then.

Magma Jet was/is a staple in the formats it was/is legal in. Of course, while you can put Magma Jet in almost any deck and profit from the extra removal and higher card quality, Augury Owl is much less versatile in that it only makes sense in decks, that can apreciate a 1/1 flyer. Thing is, in the decks that do, this is an allstar. Scry 3 is a very strong effect and it will often win games because getting rid of virtually dead cards (unneeded lands or spells, that for one or another reason will not benefit you) which helps you to draw relevant cards faster.

You could also compare it to the famous Sakura-Tribe Elder. He basically was a Rampant Growth that gave you a chump block to stall agro. Augury Owl can play a very similar role... (see all)