That was not part of a complete breakfast!

Just don’t spook the Scops!

Untrusting Owl spots you!

These campers oughta get out of here already and leave me be! Scram!

I used to be a little iffy on them as I was getting into owls. My brain wasn’t ready to take on that much unfiltered owlishness.

Now I want to work with one so bad! 🥰

The well defined ridge around it really sets it apart here. Stunning!

The colors of the background, and Buffy’s cool and demure face are both so perfect! Love love love it!

I can propose that idea to the group.

The matchmaking worked out pretty well last time, and I wouldn’t want some people to not have their favorite owl in the running at all, but I also feel it would be a little boring if it came down to the same handful of birds every time.

I use the results a bit to try to drum up excitement during the rest of the year as well, since it shows me hoos really popular and also hoo could use a boost.

She’s got quite the lovely combination of patterns!

You had me excited to read about this all day, but I was traveling and couldn’t get to it until now.

I read the study paper and for the most part there wasn’t too much more to it than what you said, but then the conclusion has me a little confused.

The fact that parents responded to a manipulation of UV reflectance of their offspring can not be due to UV coloration, because owls probably do not have a VS or UVS cone (Bowmaker & Martin 1978) and, at night, there probably is not enough light for colour vision. It is possible that the measured effect was due to a change in perceived brightness mediated by scotopic (rod) vision. Compared to diurnal species, owls have very few cones in their rod- dominated retina (Hart 2001). Owls, like some bats (e.g. Winter et al. 2003), may have a UV- transmitting lens and cornea and so the secondary (beta) peak of the pigment in their rods would capture UV light contributing to achromatic vision at low light levels. It is also possible that, even at low light levels, photopic discrimination was involved, but again the effect of UV would be via the stimulation of the beta peak of pigments in the cones. It has been reported that owls have cones containing oil droplets that are either colourless or only a pale yellow (Walls 1942), which presumably transmit UV light.

So if it’s not a coloration difference, does that mean they are just seeing a brighter type of grey (greater amplitude) or are they seeing something else?

I’d like to learn more about their UV seeing abilities, but I feel in over my head. I feel this paper is pretty jargon heavy.

Very interesting stuff though!

Oh I wasn’t bothered by it at all, just surprised to see an owl post pop up somewhere else, especially an ID request. I found it though! 😊

I just assume I’ve either entertained or annoyed everyone by this point that they know about the community one way or another by now. 😆

It’s the one job I’m here for!

I was a bit surprised to see this not in Superbowl.

I’m sure they have a lot of rare birds they could talk about! Well, rare to the rest of us anyway. They’d just be regular birds to them. 🤔

It feels more like compliance. They will hiss and click and puff up, but as soon as they’re grabbed, they’re usually pretty calm once they see they’re not scaring you off.

Birds seem to really avoid fighting whenever possible. Losing the wrong feathers, breaking a bone, or getting a bad cut can all cost them their ability to fly, so if being menacing doesn’t work, escape is usually the next best option if they aren’t protecting their nest. If the opportunity isn’t there to get away, they just seem to freeze up like this.

They’re not enjoying it, but they seem to understand they aren’t being actively hurt, so it’s best to just wait it out.