A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Glaucidium gnoma
Coniferous forest
This very small owl is quite loud for its size! We detected it first by its tooting call and then zeroed in on its location. In my third photo, you can see one of its "false eyes" on the back of its head. Tommy and I were very happy to have such a wonderful visual of the bird!
5 Comments
Soooooo Cool, Josh! Those False eyes are Awesome! Freaky too!
That's awesome! It is a very similar concept.
It reminded me that fishermen in the Royal Bengal Tiger land of the Sunderbans, India, wear masks on the back of their heads to make the tiger think twice about attacking (apparently it will not readily attack face-to face) ...this owl employs a similar ploy! New info for me. Thank you, Joshua.
Thanks! They are a species that is constantly harassed by songbirds, so I bet those "eyes" make birds think twice before diving at the owl!
Very cool about the "false eye."