Sooty Owl making hanging vertically look easy.
Photos by Richard Jackson of owlphotographer.com
Lots of bird pics there, plus photography advice on taking photos of wild owls.
Bonus: Powerful Owl
this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2024
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For owls that are superb.
US Wild Animal Rescue Database: Animal Help Now
International Wildlife Rescues: RescueShelter.com
Australia Rescue Help: WIRES
Germany-Austria-Switzerland-Italy Wild Bird Rescue: wildvogelhilfe.org
If you find an injured owl:
Note your exact location so the owl can be released back where it came from. Contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitation specialist to get correct advice and immediate assistance.
Minimize stress for the owl. If you can catch it, toss a towel or sweater over it and get it in a cardboard box or pet carrier. It should have room to be comfortable but not so much it can panic and injure itself. If you can’t catch it, keep people and animals away until help can come.
Do not give food or water! If you feed them the wrong thing or give them water improperly, you can accidentally kill them. It can also cause problems if they require anesthesia once help arrives, complicating procedures and costing valuable time.
If it is a baby owl, and it looks safe and uninjured, leave it be. Time on the ground is part of their growing up. They can fly to some extent and climb trees. If animals or people are nearby, put it up on a branch so it’s safe. If it’s injured, follow the above advice.
For more detailed help, see the OwlPages Rescue page.
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I feel so bad for the owls in night shots with the flash on. Look how huge their pupils are! They're gonna be seeing spots for days!
I know! I always think about that too!
I was really annoyed the other day in the update article about Flaco the Eagle Owl, a lady called police because he was on her balcony and she was worried he was hurt, and they just shined lights in his face until he flew off. So rude! 😔
They probably don't enjoy it an more than we do, but they do sound to be equipped to handle it better than we're able to. Their eyes have some really cool powers!
From the Owl Research Institute:
Towards the back of the eye, they have a high number of specialized photoreceptors known as rods, which help the owl see well in low-light conditions but do not help with seeing colors. Since these rod cells make Great Horned Owls so susceptible to light changes, they are able to dilate and constrict their pupil quite quickly with the help of certain tiny muscles. Our eyes do this too; if you’ve ever turned on the lights too quickly in a dark room, you’ve felt the shock on your eyes! This is because your pupils were struggling to adjust quickly to the dramatic light change. A Great Horned Owl can actually constrict its pupils in 176 milliseconds or less after a flash of light. Dilation is not quite as fast, taking one full second for the owl’s eyes to adjust.
It's really neat to see this pic during the day when you can clearly see the yellow irises. I don't know why my brain kind of assumed these classically black-eyed owls just had really dark irises, as opposed to their pupils just being so large at night that you can't see iris at all
Owl eyes come in a wide range of colors. There are a bunch with dark brown or black eyes, but many times they are just really dilated. If you haven't seen the comment below, they can dilate them separately from each other and have a lot of manual control over them, and they work really really fast compared to our own eyes.
Barn Owl
Flammulated Owl
Tawny Owl
Brown Wood Owl
Checking out what eye color is one of my favorite parts of learning about a new owl!
Ok, that Brown Wood Owl needs to model for a makeup company though
Like they say, a wood owl is a good owl!
🤣
