First time I have ever had one hunch its back up like this! I have seen them fluff up to look bigger but not like this!
Interesting shots for sure. The owl almost looks cat-like to me. Nice work.
That's odd. I've never seen that either. Nice photos.
littlebiddle wrote:
First time I have ever had one hunch its back up like this! I have seen them fluff up to look bigger but not like this!
Super shots Dave...but I've never seen one do that either!!
I’ve never seen this before. Does anyone know what’s going on?
Frisco wrote:
I’ve never seen this before. Does anyone know what’s going on?
I was told that I caught him in mid hoot with his tail in the up position!
littlebiddle wrote:
First time I have ever had one hunch its back up like this! I have seen them fluff up to look bigger but not like this!
Nice catch.....name Quasimodo?
littlebiddle wrote:
First time I have ever had one hunch its back up like this! I have seen them fluff up to look bigger but not like this!
Not a “hunch-back”, but an eagle owl leaning foreward and delivering the “reefed tail” display. I have observed it only three times in GHOs in the wild, but during over 30 years of treating and rehabilitating several hundreds of raptors (including over 50 GHOs) I saw the display repeated several times by a few individual owls. My tentative (note: NOT definitive...) conclusion as to its significance was that it seemed to be delivered as a response to perceived menace when, for some reason, the owl was unable or disinclined to leave the area of the confrontation (as when confined for treatment/rehabilitation).
The incidents of observing the display in wild GHOs: a parent owl would perform the display during human visits to the nest for the purpose of blood sampling and oreo-pharyngeal swabbing of nestlings for rabies virus disease research purposes.
The display was often accompanied by bill-snapping, but not by vocalization. The performing adult seemed to be taking a break from more vigorous attacks on the nest invaders. Head, neck and shoulder protection was provided to the nest invaders!
I saw the same display delivered repeatedly by a captive eurasian eagle owl (same genus as the GHO (Bubo sp.) in a raptor display near BadWorishaven, Bavaria.
Dave
It looks to me like it pulled both shoulders up
If you want to reply, then
register here. Registration is free and your account is created instantly, so you can post right away.