THE BODY LANGUAGE OF

OW

Owls stare,wink,andposeoutlandishly—

butwhatcanweinferfromtheseactions?

Here owl aficionado Tanja Brandt interprets

a few particularly striking examples for us.

I

t swoops over its territory majestically, nothing escaping its sharp stare:

Owls such as the great gray owl (large photo) feel most in their element

when they’re in the air. After all, the hunters execute breathtaking feats

as they silently soar. While that may sound plausible, it is unfortunately

fundamentally wrong: That’s because owls—like all birds, actually—

don’t enjoy the exertion of flying and so tend to avoid it as much as possible.

“When it comes time to procure their food, owls go right to their reserves,”

explains photographer Tanja Brandt. Owls don’t want to put on an air show.

They want their peace. And whatever is in their beak. But this is by no means

the only false conclusion that can be drawn from the strange behavior of

these curious birds of prey.

Let’s take the representative in the topmost photo on the right. When owls

wink, it corresponds to humans’ eye-protection blink reflex and has nothing

to do with ambiguous message transmission. “Owls just don’t do that,” says

Brandt. The little owl (as this species is called) shown here is actually just

extremely tense; it opens its beak widely, not to shriek at anyone, but rather

to disgorge some of the indigestible components contained in its last meal.

Since this procedure is extremely exhausting, the bird shuts one of its eyes.

And then it would like to be alone...

No, the owl in the middle picture hasn’t undergone an instant camoufl age.

As Brandt explains: “This owl is cleaning its tail feathers and is benefi ting

from a head that can rotate by 270 degrees. Owls only clean themselves

Mar 2017 82 ideasanddiscoveries.com

What really counts in the end...