Owl at the Tinnunculus falconry, Heidelberg

Owl at the Tinnunculus falconry, Heidelberg, originally uploaded by miquel_martin.

There's a beautiful eagle owl! The funny thing with these guys, is their eyes are fixed on the sockets, that is, an owl will never look down on you, or roll their eyes in frustration: they lack the muscles for it!

This has a bunch of funny consequences: take an owl on a tree branch, gently swayed by the wind: if the owl's staring at something, you'll see it's whole body move with the branch while its head remains stationary (there's definitelly some cervical magic involved there). Even worse, they just can't see what's right in front of their noses (or rather, whatever it is they happen to be stabbing with that murderous beak), so the feathers around it act as sort of feelers (filoplumes for the nomenclature bufs).

Pretty amazing creatures, really: Their wings have special "hairy" terminations for stealth flight; Eggs don't hatch at the same time, so feeding and educating doesn't need to be done all at once, and in some species, ears (which are not the "horns") are not symetrically placed to improve sound localization. Are you going O RLY yet?



Eus aqui tot un duc (mussol reial)! Una curiositat d'aquestes bèsties son els seus ulls, fixes a les cavitats oculars. Un mussol mai no et mirarà sobre l'espatlla, ni farà rodar els ulls tot frustrat: simplement els hi falten els músculs per fer-ho!

Això te una colla de conseqüències força divertides: diguem que tenim un musssol a una brana, gronxant-se al vent; si es fixa en quelcom, veureu que tot el seu cos es mou, mentre que el cap roman ben quiet! (Ha d'haver-hi alguna mena de magia cervical en tot plegat). Pitjor encara, no poden veure pas el que tenen danvant els morros (o mes aviat, allo que estan destroçant a cops de bec en un moment donat), així que les plomes del voltant del bec s'usen com a sensors tàctils! (filoplumes per aquells amb inclinations científiques).

Uns bitxos d'allò mes interessants, la veritat. Les ales acaben en una mena de serreta per volar silenciosament. Els ous no es trenquen pas a l'hora, cosa que simplifica l'alimentació i educació, i en algunes espècies, les orelles (que no son pas les "banyes") estan situades assimètricament per millorar la localitzacio acustica!

If you'd like some more info on this picture, there's a bunch of extra details in flickr.