Superbowl

Photo by Mike Lentz

>Nestled high in a tree in a mixed woodland, a pair of Northern Saw Whet Owls made their home/ Their cozy nest hollowed out in a natural tree cavity held four eggs. The female incubated them diligently for approximately a month and then stayed on the nest for the first 18 days until she left for good leaving the father to continue feeding them. But experiencing the world beyond the nest beckoned as the Owlets grew restless, their instincts urging them to explore! Upon fledging, they stayed close to their nest for many weeks giving wonderful photo opportunities. This image was taken at the end of the day with the sunset going down through the trees in the background.

From The Raptor Trust

>The hottest new band in town features these four Eastern Screech Owls. What's their band name? > >These Eastern Screech Owls are juveniles going through their molt into their adult plumage. They are fully grown, but feature some questionable feather- doos. They'll be with us for a few more months until they molt into their full adult plumage and learn how to hunt on their own.

The article is in french. Feel free to use a translator.

Found this, which I hadn't seen before, but looks to be a popular repost.

Photo by Lesley Martin

Photos by Snap Photography

>FINALLY! > >After literally years of chasing an owl shot chanced upon this epic spot. Absolutely amazing watching it silently hunt right in front of me. I think there might be more owl shots to come.... Sorry, not sorry! > >Canon UK R6iİ + EF300 F2.8 + 2xiii extender on top of the Vanguard Photo UK Veo 3 263CB tripod. > >1/1250th >F6.3 >1600

Photo by Attasha Berry

The thin looking plumicorns in this Great Horned Owl make me think of moth antenna.

Photo by Paul Bennett

A lovely Long Eared Owl

Photo by Bryant Aardema

Some sibling fun time.

Photo by Mark Workman

Photos by Lucia Hackett

>Barred owlets will take power naps by keeping their talons tightly gripped on a branch and lie down on their stomachs. This cutie was so busy this morning moving around in the branches until he wasn't! Then he plopped down on the branch and let his wings hang and relax. He stayed like that for about 15 minutes just casually looking around. Then he had to figure out how to get up.

Photos from the Wildlife Center of Virginia

>Who would have thought that when screech-owl hatchlings open their eyes they turn from cute little fuzzballs into the most grumpy, judgemental-looking owls on the planet?

Photo by Carolyn Nessman

Great Horned Owl in a tight spot!

Photo from the Cincinnati Zoo

They titled this "Bad Feather Day" but I liked my title better.

Photo by Margitta Hild

>A tawny owl just before it flew off into the night.

From Freedom First Wildlife Rehab

>Check out the glare from Minnie Mae, the Eastern Screech owl! Minnie was damaging her wing entering a traditional screech owl house so we had to change up the entrance to protect her. Daily checks and modifications are always needed to protect owls in captivity.

Photo by Harold Wilion

>Peek-A-Boo > >Sorry, you folks with the cellphones (pretty much everyone) might have to enlarge the image just to see the owl, but thought the photo said more than if cropped tight.

Photo by Kevin Thurk

Photo by Mike Lentz

>Here is another Northern Saw Whet Owl in a different natural nest cavity. > >This was probably the most rewarding spring in my nature photography journey! Working with a few other friends to accomplish many things that required a little knowledge, skill or just plain hard work. > >This mother stayed on her nest of four babies for approximately 18 days - just like what the books say... can confirm that is accurate first hand! Then dad came in and fed them daily until they fledged!

White Faced Scops stops in to visit The resident at the Owl Rescue Centre

>Found this little fella perched on a shelf in our clinic this morning. He isn't a patient, just a visitor checking in on a family member. > >Our windows are made of shadenet with roll down canvas blinds and the one has an opening in where he flew in. > >It happens almost weekly with all our different species.

White Faced Scops was winner of the first Owl of the Year, but will it be able to hold onto the crown again this year?

Here's a cool pic of a Snowy cruising along the shoreline.

I'm headed off to the beach myself for the rest of the month, so I didn't know what time posts will be going up, but I've got a bunch stockpiled already and I'll surely keep finding new stuff every day.

I don't like the hot so much, so I'll be making plenty of time to sit indoors and scroll for owls and respond to your questions and comments.

Photos by Scott Winkler

>I have been hearing a Great Horned Owl hooting since winter. A couple of evenings ago I saw him sunning himself in our backyard and then he flew to a branch along the woods. I took all 200 pics of him from our deck!! He was very photogenic giving me many profiles!

just came across this really cool photo of a barn owl being errrrrr run off this little guy's property?! what an absolute chad who has absolutely no idea how big he is :>

check out the link - there are some other photos from the same set:

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/591235181

From National Geographic

This was from a photo contest.

I couldn't find any interesting facts on them, but they sure are cute!

We've had a ton of great Buffy Fish Owl pics on here since it's great showing in Owl of the Year, but I think this is the first one I've come across where it's actually in the air!

Photo by Dan Kev

Photos by Guilong Charles Chen

>I had a unique experience with this barred owl while I was in the woods. I didn't see her until I was way too close. We locked eyes for a few seconds, and then she flew straight toward me and passed me by inches. My shutter speed wasn't fast enough to freeze the wings, but I rather enjoy the blurred effect. That face! I was in heaven.

Finally got to make a return visit to the first owl rehab I visited. The Raptor Trust is a nice medical and rehab facility in northern NJ.

It's a great facility to look around, but picture taking is absolutely terrible. They have very fine netting on all the enclosures. Most of my pics look like this, no matter how hard I tried.

!

I'll share a few I got where you can actually see the birds. The post picture is of the most beautiful Barred Owl they had, Sonny.

Photo by Kevin Eisler

I love seeing owls with different color plumage!

This owl is from Manitoba, so coming from a different climate, it has a different color than more southern GHOs.

There is such an endless variety of owls!

From the Owl Research Institute

>We're excited to share that our ongoing project on predation and nesting outcomes in Short-eared Owls in the Mission Valley is yielding some promising results! This year we have located over 30 Short-eared Owl nests (NEW RECORD). > >This year's breeding season began early and continues to produce more nests. We anticipate finding a few more before the season ends! > >The breeding season for Short-eared Owls extends from March through July and August. During this crucial period, please be mindful of ground-nesting birds and avoid disturbing their habitats. Many nests fail and birds are klled due to mowing, haying, grazing. herbicide application, and spring burning. Young birds just learning how to fly can often be hit by cars so please drive cautiously on back roads.

Photo 1: Short-eared Owl chick after banding (approx 5 weeks old)

From Ojai Raptor Center

>Sometimes, you just need to take a load off. Take an example from this little Great Horned Owl baby relaxing in our incubator, waiting for room service to bring his meal, and take it easy this weekend.

Photos by Randy Bennett

Photo by Harold Wilion

>I find it amazing how owls, both young and old, love climbing or flying to the very top of a tree where they don't even have enough room to put both feet. There are millions of horizontal branches in the woods where they could just stand with no effort, but they insist on perching on these spikes where even the slightest breeze makes them flap around trying to maintain their balance. Maybe to them it's just a game. A game I love to watch seeing that I'm the kind of guy that has trouble standing on a sidewalk without tumbling over.

Photo by Brian Santos

From Wikipedia:

>The Philippine scops owl is a fairly small-to-mid-sized species of owl, but is arguably the largest true species of scops owl. Adults measure from 23 to 28 cm (9.1 to 11.0 in). Their body mass can range from 125 to 310 g (4.4 to 10.9 oz), with females often considerably larger than males.

Great set of photos of a Barn Owl on the hunt.

Photos by Trevor Stutter

>A Barn Owl near the Suffolk coast in the UK. It's the first time l've photographed one with prey and it was out and about for about two and a half hours and caught about 8 voles taking them back to its nest somewhere on the other side of the field.

Photos from Cody Julie Davis

>I recently came upon a rather precarious scene, flushed up about 15 Crows and as I drew closer an Owl shot up out of the tall grass and landed in a nearby tree. I'm assuming the Crows had it cornered and were beating it up. The Owl stretched and tried to dry out, and upon taking off for the trees a few Crows were back after it. I was thinking maybe this was a juvenile and it exposed itself too much and the Crows took advantage. I hope things worked out!

Photo by Simon Wardle

>Barred Owlet checking out what all the fuss is about outside the darkness.

In the recent post about UV aging a bird, one of the things that came up is the brood patch, which I don't think we've covered yet.

Owls will remove a patch of down to both insulate the nest and to get better heat conduction with the eggs.

From the Owl Research Institute

>The first time I saw a brood patch - especially visible on a Snowy Owl - I was mystified and concerned. It just didn't look right. I went on to learn that it is exactly right - a perfectly developed adaptation to ensure that eggs are incubated properly. An especially relevant issue in the Arctic. > >Female Snowy Owls will lay three to eleven white eggs on a ground nest. The number of eggs depends on how much food is available in a given season. Snowy Owls have an instinctive sense of how many chicks lemming numbers can support. For example, if an area's vole population is high, a female Snowy Owl might lay nine eggs. If the vole population is low, she might lay just three eggs, or she may not nest at all. > >Eggs are usually laid two to three days apart. They will hatch in this same order. During the incubation period, the female loses the feathers on her belly in order to transfer more body heat to the eggs. This is called a brood patch and she presses this warm, bare skin against the eggs. She lies on the nest in the incubation position, with her head low and stomach down, keeping the eggs warm all the time. Extra blood vessels infuse this patch of skin with extra warmth enabling the female Snowy to act as a warm blanket over her clutch of eggs. > >When Snowy Owls lay eggs on their Arctic breeding grounds, it is often still frozen and even ice covered. To see eggs - something that needs to be constantly warm in order to develop - in the harshness of an Arctic landscape seems like an impossible combination. But Snowy Owls - with the help of their brood patch - certainly have it down.

Photo by Simon Wardle