Eating Green

Mottled owl (Strix virgata) & Katydid - Buenaventura Reserve, Ecuador

 

I really like owls and always feel privileged when I manage to photograph one. In Ecuador we were very lucky to have a family of these owls living near our house. At night we could spot them by the light as they flew in and grabbed large katydids that had been attracted to the lights. The individual in this photo is juvenile almost adult size owl but even at this size it didn't seem to be willing to hunt on its own. The adult owl would hunt the katydids and this one would sit and call, occasionally the adult would fly over and hand-off its prey. I stood in the dark for over an hour attempting to get good shots of the owls with their meals, this was rather difficult as the adults would consume their prey on the spot in the dense vegetation near the light post and would only occasionally return to the juvenile with food. The juvenile would fly around from place to place as well and frequently be obscured by vegetation, here I got lucky and the juvenile was actually in a clear area when it received its meal. Katydids while by far the most frequently consumed item weren't the only prey I saw these owls take, I also saw one catch a large moth and on several occasions grab frogs from the ground as well.

 

The owl looks wet because it is, it had been raining shortly before.

Done