SNN (ScrollingNetworkNews) ✿ ✿ Our Mel and Sydney returned to their nesting box with plenty of bonding occurring..but after 2.5 months of Sydney in the box from Dec 2013 to mid Feb 2014, the lack of prey gifts from Mel ( perhaps due to the severe and historic drought underway in California)and they have forgone the nesting process this year as many other raptors ✿ Compared to other owls of similar size, the Barn Owl has a much higher metabolic rate, requiring relatively more food. Pound for pound, Barn Owls consume more rodents – often regarded as pests by humans – than possibly any other creature. ✿ We remind viewers that sometimes owlets may not survive - the parents will dispose of things in "The Owl Way" -viewer discretion is advised, this is nature and the "Owl way". ✿ ~ ✿ “Animals, like us, are living souls. They are not things. They are not objects. Neither are they human. Yet they mourn. They love. They dance. They suffer. They know the peaks and chasms of being.” ― Gary Kowalski, The Souls of Animals ✿ Each species is a masterpiece, a creation assembled with extreme care and genius." ~ E.O. Wilson

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Trivia Q from Sat-The Sooty Tyto

Lesser Sooty Owl Tyto (multipunctata)
Female - Length(14-15") Weight up to(19oz)Male - Length(12-14") Weight up to (16oz)A small to medium, sooty black Owl with silvery white underparts. They have many similarities to the Sooty Owl but are lighter in color and noticeably smaller.  Lesser Sooty Owls have very short tails. Their eyes are very large with a black Iris. The beak is pale horn.
A piercing downscale whistle, which can sound like a shriek at close quarters. There are also a variety of trills and chirrups associated with breeding.
http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Tyto&species=multipunctata


Greater Sooty Owl Tyto (tenebricosa)
Ambua Papua New Guinea...  Female - Length(17-20") Weight(26.5-35 oz)Male - Length(14.5-17") Weight(17.5-24.5 oz) A medium large, sooty black Owl with very large, dark eyes set in a round facial disc. The tail is very short, the legs feathered and eyes very large with a black iris.
 They are distinguished from lesser Sooty Owls by much larger size and darker plumage. A Sooty Owl's Bill is horn colored and feathered almost to the tip. 
The characteristic call is a piercing downscale shriek, lasting for upwards of two seconds.
Their calls  has been likened to the sound of a falling bomb without the final explosion and the call is now widely known as the 'bomb whistle'.  
http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Tyto&species=tenebricosa