I saw this while scrolling and didn’t recognize what type of owl it was at first. Then I saw it was just watered down! 😆
Photo by Larry Strack
A Burrowing Owl, not at all excited about the torrential rain in South Dakota. (Not snow flakes in the background…it’s heavy rain.) Was happy to get this little guy perched on a post near the road.
Most owls are not waterproof. They actually struggle to fly (and therefore hunt) during rainy weather.
Weather resistant is probably a more appropriate term for them. The weight of the water clinging to their feathers seems to be the main issue. It’s like when you try to run in a swimming pool. You can do it, it’s just not sensible to get around that way. And for a wild animal who’s success is caught up in maintaining a calorie surplus, flying while burdened down doesn’t make sense.
Those are some sexy owl legs!
I find myself forgetting many times that these owls actually fly! The photos usually show them on the ground being silly or showing off those legs, but they fly as much as any other owl.
And then you have Yaffle over there in that video like “Moar spray pls!”
I think Yaffle has been influencing my algorithm lately, as I’ve been getting more owl bath videos lately. I wish there were better video support here so I could share more video, as owls in motion are quite entertaining in a different way than gets shown in photos.
Check out this splashing Screech Owl
It wiggles so much!
Those little wing splashies! I’m definitely getting a couple of bird baths for my yard this year.
And flying videos are great to really see those wing spans. The body to wing ratio on Yaffle was really surprising. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an unfurled burrowing owl before. You expect that kind of expanse from the big guys.
The large wing:body ratio is partb of the recipe for an owl’s silent flight. Same concept are running a large PC fan at low speed vs a smaller fan at higher speed to generate the same cfm but at less noise.
You actually just blew my mind with that analogy. That makes so much sense
I’m glad that helped!
Hahahaha
Hot Legs! Knockin’ me owwwwt!
