Photo by Wayne Geater
Stumbled upon this beautiful bird this morning. I love the coloring and the subtle speckling. Make sure you zoom in on this photo to get a good look!
This owl was discovered 2001, and was the first new bird discovered in Sri Lanka since 1868. It lives in remote rainforest, where it is the only nocturnal avian predator.
The person who finally discovered it had heard an unknown bird call and chased it for 6 years before finally finding this tiny owl.
In 2006, the population was estimated at only 80 birds. Truly rare, and I’m glad we get to see it, and hopefully it will be protected.
You’re probably thinking of the White Faced Scops Owl. They are in most of the videos I’ve seen of the defense postures.
Other owls do this as well, and whether they puff or elongate seems to be based on if they intended to intimidate or hide.
Here’s a common Screech Owl doing the elongation thing.
Here’s a medium sized owl, a Long Eared Owl, going for the pufferfish technique.
It’s amazing the transformations they’re capable of!
Incredible birds aren’t they, thanks for adding so much context & info to my comment!
Most birds I just don’t find very interesting… But corvids, parrots and owls are amazing. Also hawks are pretty damn cool.
One of my life goals is to befriend a crow. My dad has a regular magpie pair who cheekily visit his garden so maybe I can befriend them
I think birds get written off since many are so present in our daily life that they just become part of the scenery and it can be hard to tell one individual from another so they feel interchangable.
Raptors and corvids are easy to get into, with their large size, intelligence, and impressive physical features.
I’ve befriended an ever growing group of bluejays at my house. I gave one a peanut one day for fun, and now I’m to to around 7 that keep an eye out for me and will call me to get my attention. A pair of cardinals had started watching the jays get fed and have gotten into copying their behavior as well.
I can’t tell them apart visually, they don’t really sit still long, but I can tell who’s who by how they approach and their individual risk tolerances and how they treat the other jays. They’ve been a real please to observe and fire us to get to know each other. I miss them greatly now that I’m doing in person work again.
I had always wanted to befriend a crow as well, but seeing how much food these little birds can eat had be scared of picking up the food bill for a pack of crows!
I’m glad this guy could get your attention today. If you’re new here, you can check out my Owl-natomy posts or my recent bird banding writeup if you want a deeperb dive into the biology and study of raptors. Mainly owls of course, but I’ll include some hawks and vultures some times with event photos or they’re in dinner if the scientific papers I’ll link for anyone that wants the full data. There’s one for predator/prey chase techniques for example.
I stay away from the meme post stuff myself, and try to add knowledge and places you can go see birds in person. I posted the 50 States of Owls so people in each state could go see raptors in person. One person says they had signed up to the volunteer class for one of them even! I enjoy learning, and you guys asking things gives me guys directions to share knowledge to you and me. I’ve been learning a lot these last few months doing all these posts. I hope you stick around!
Yeah that’s a really good point about them being overlooked due to being so prevalent in our world.
I’ve subscribed 😁 just had a good laugh at the Magpie God
Glad to have you with us!
Even if you don’t follow along too closely, I still try to give you a neat bird or 2 a day to look forward to. I just try to make this a positive place where you can learn if you want, it just look at some cool birds.
You’re doing an amazing job, people like you are what makes lemmy such an awesome place to spend time. Thank you!
Stop, you embarrass me! 😅
I’m just glad everyone is having fun!