Male great horned owl
With my apologies for the weird processing, the owl's hideaway was extremely dark and the roof tiles, extremely bright.
A pair of great horned owls, the largest owl species in North America, for many years has nested in one of Yellowstone National Park's busiest locations, the historic district of Mammoth Hot Springs. The female is identifiable by her lighter plumage, the male's feathers are "textbook" for his kind.
This year three owlets hatched. This day they had already "branched," i.e., started hopping from branch to branch and exercising their wings with vigorous flapping, but not yet able to fly.
The male, shown here, as is typical when the nest tree gets so crowded with big babies, was roosting elsewhere. In this case, he had tucked himself beneath shady eaves in a nearby-by building.
Male great horned owl
With my apologies for the weird processing, the owl's hideaway was extremely dark and the roof tiles, extremely bright.
A pair of great horned owls, the largest owl species in North America, for many years has nested in one of Yellowstone National Park's busiest locations, the historic district of Mammoth Hot Springs. The female is identifiable by her lighter plumage, the male's feathers are "textbook" for his kind.
This year three owlets hatched. This day they had already "branched," i.e., started hopping from branch to branch and exercising their wings with vigorous flapping, but not yet able to fly.
The male, shown here, as is typical when the nest tree gets so crowded with big babies, was roosting elsewhere. In this case, he had tucked himself beneath shady eaves in a nearby-by building.