Owls (Wild Only)
View allAll Photos Tagged OWLS.
Selfie art. The owl feather is a lucky find, i looked out of my window the other day and saw it laying on the ground outside. I rushed out to get it and promptly took some photo's:-)).
Owl +other bits+bobs are pd png
This red phase eastern screech owl was sleeping while we were there, at one point I was able to get a few images with a slightly opened eye.
Happy New Year to all my Flickr friends.
20191117 8726
These hardy owls tolerate extreme cold-and-wind conditions by puffing up like this one and using tail and wings to remain stable in the wind. More than any other species of owl, hawkies have pressed the limits of my hands' ability to withstand freezing cold.
Only on rare occasions have I seen them fly into woods to escape the harshest cold and wind.
Barn Owl Gloucestershire take from car on the way home, bare 500mm, had taken 1.4 converter off, bit distant but lovely to see
This is the same Snowy Owl I posted on February 26. In this view, we can see a few brown freckles and lines.
The light was very harsh, and almost directly on him, hence the squint.
Strathcona County, Alberta.
Barn Owl - Tyto Alba
Norfolk
Like most owls, the barn owl is nocturnal, relying on its acute sense of hearing when hunting in complete darkness. It often becomes active shortly before dusk and can sometimes be seen during the day when relocating from one roosting site to another. In Britain, on various Pacific Islands and perhaps elsewhere, it sometimes hunts by day. This practice may depend on whether the owl is mobbed by other birds if it emerges in daylight. However, in Britain, some birds continue to hunt by day even when mobbed by such birds as magpies, rooks and black-headed gulls, such diurnal activity possibly occurring when the previous night has been wet making hunting difficult. By contrast, in southern Europe and the tropics, the birds seem to be almost exclusively nocturnal, with the few birds that hunt by day being severely mobbed.
Barn owls are not particularly territorial but have a home range inside which they forage. For males in Scotland this has a radius of about 1 km (0.6 mi) from the nest site and an average size of about 300 hectares. Female home ranges largely coincide with that of their mates. Outside the breeding season, males and females usually roost separately, each one having about three favoured sites in which to conceal themselves by day, and which are also visited for short periods during the night. Roosting sites include holes in trees, fissures in cliffs, disused buildings, chimneys and haysheds and are often small in comparison to nesting sites. As the breeding season approaches, the birds move back to the vicinity of the chosen nest to roost.
Once a pair-bond has been formed, the male will make short flights at dusk around the nesting and roosting sites and then longer circuits to establish a home range. When he is later joined by the female, there is much chasing, turning and twisting in flight, and frequent screeches, the male's being high-pitched and tremulous and the female's lower and harsher. At later stages of courtship, the male emerges at dusk, climbs high into the sky and then swoops back to the vicinity of the female at speed. He then sets off to forage. The female meanwhile sits in an eminent position and preens, returning to the nest a minute or two before the male arrives with food for her. Such feeding behaviour of the female by the male is common, helps build the pair-bond and increases the female's fitness before egg-laying commences.
Barn owls are cavity nesters. They choose holes in trees, fissures in cliff faces, the large nests of other birds such as the hamerkop (Scopus umbretta) and, particularly in Europe and North America, old buildings such as farm sheds and church towers. Buildings are preferred to trees in wetter climates in the British Isles and provide better protection for fledglings from inclement weather. Trees tend to be in open habitats rather than in the middle of woodland and nest holes tend to be higher in North America than in Europe because of possible predation.
This bird has suffered declines through the 20th century and is thought to have been adversely affected by organochlorine pesticides such as DDT in the 1950s and '60s.
Nocturnal birds like the barn owl are poorly monitored by the Breeding Bird Survey and, subject to this caveat, numbers may have increased between 1995-2008.
Barn owls are a Schedule 1 and 9 species.
Population:
UK breeding:
4,000 pairs
Europe:
110-220,000 pairs
My shutter speed was a little slow for a flight shot, There was no time to change settings when this one launched from its perch.
Thorhild County, Alberta.
I was so excited to see my first Flammulated Owl this week! He is right on a walking trail and only about 6" tall.
I knew where approximately to look for him from another photographer friend but this is such a busy area with hikers, etc. that some birders are worried that too many people will find out (I didn't post the location or tell anyone else, many know already as owls have been seen in the area before). Apparently people have posted his location on E-bird and some are making a trip from the coast to find him. They are a vulnerable species so care needs to be taken.
He is so camouflaged against the bark and leaves of a tree. Their eyes are nearly all black and they generally nest in old woodpecker holes or cavities in dead trees, but they will use nest boxes where provided.
This guy shows up regularly in my backyard. My defense crows will harass him as soon as he shows up. So close today, I had to back up in order for my lens to focus. Then touched him with a short stick to get him to fly.
I am posting a real Snowy Owl today. Thanks for your kind comments on my male Snowy Owl carving posted just before this. Much appreciated.
Strathcona County, Alberta.
A rainforest is an area of tall, mostly evergreen trees and a high amount of rainfall. Rainforests are Earth’s oldest living ecosystems, with some surviving in their present form for at least 70 million years. They are incredibly diverse and complex, home to more than half of the world’s plant and animal species—even though they cover just 6% of Earth’s surface. This makes rainforests astoundingly dense with flora and fauna. Rainforests’ rich biodiversity is incredibly important to our well-being and the well-being of our planet.
I was driving down a gravel road in the Clearwater National Forest in Idaho when this owl flew in front of me and landed in a roadside tree. I stopped and got three shots before it flew off again. I don't see many owls in the wild so I was happy to catch this one even though I had to crop too much and the white balance is off.....
What an interesting range map for this species: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Barred_Owl/maps-range
Taken at a levee, near Reelfoot Lake, TN. Owls are one of my favorite subjects, just don't get many chances to photograph them. God's creation is amazing!!
Wikipedia: The eastern screech owl (Megascops asio) or eastern screech-owl, is a small owl that is relatively common in Eastern North America, from Mexico to Canada. This species is native to most wooded environments of its distribution, and more so than any other owl in its range, has adapted well to manmade development, although it frequently avoids detection due to its strictly nocturnal habits.
Conservation status: Least Concern