Sage (Eagle Owl)
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There is much written about the Eurasian / European eagle
owl sadly much of it is confusing as it is often contradictory or just plain
wrong.
The starting point in understanding this misinformation
is by looking at the name & the breed.
I refer to Sage (our owl) as a Eurasian Eagle owl because that is
what she is however she belongs to the European Eagle owl family so she is also
a European Eagle owl. There are other owls in this group which are sub species
& very different.
When describing these birds it would be like someone trying to describe a family member
by describing that member’s sister or brother they may have some similarities
but they are by no means the same. It’s far easier using their Latin name to accurately identify
them; Sage my Eurasian is a Bubo Bubo.
I have read descriptions of European Eagle owl’s whose
wings can reach 2 feet which considering Sage’s overall wingspan was six feet
at around 12 weeks old is just plain confusing clearly the authers were describing a Different bird.
The most reliable & accurate source of information on
owls I have found is Owlpages.com
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There is a European Eagle owl called Bubo Bengalensis also
known as the Rock owl or Indian owl or the Bengal owl
which although similar in some ways is so different to the point that most falconers could
spot the difference from 100 yards not least because the Eurasian is two or
three times their size in most cases.
Clearly when people talk or write about the European
Eagle owls they should refer to the specific
bird & not its generic name To help avoid this confusion.
In addition to confusion & misinformation there
is also the problem of misidentification particularly for the layman as a
number of these owls have feathers which stand out like ear tuffs although they
have nothing to do with ears (it is thought they are to break up the outline of
the birds head for camouflage) the ears are in fact very close to the eyes. This means in real terms people see it’s
an owl with the tuffs & think they know the bird.
The other day by
accident as I was fussing our owl I saw her ears, I was really surprised as they
are in a position I had not expected & they were much much bigger than I would
have thought, its not something you see every day in fact most people will never see an owls ears.
Preparing to expel a casting (spit out a pellet of bone & fur or feathers)
picture by Nina Therese Wickmann (see link below)
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The owls eyes are fixed not because as I once
heard at a show from an owl handler that they have week eye muscles but because
they have an external skeletal ring called a sclerotic ring which effectively squeezes the eye ball
into an egg shape having the effect much the same as zooming in on a pair of binoculars
however as a result the eyes are no longer round which prevents them from moving in
their sockets.
They have the ability to look directly into the sun for understandable hunting reasons, they have a smaller colour palette than ours
& Narrower peripheral & binocular vision than ours, but with far Superior overall eyesight.
their eyes are very large and capable remarkable vision even in very low light conditions although strictly
speaking they are not totally nocturnal or even diurnal they are in fact more crepuscular (feeding
mostly at dawn & dusk) or a combination of all three Particularly in captivity as they adjust to human lifestyle, they also have very fast reacting pupils, although close up their vision is not quite as remarkable as they are farsighted although they could not be described as poor (which i have read) although my observations contradict this claim.
Another unusual thing about their eyes are they have 3 eyelids on
each eye, when they blink the top eyelid drops down to close, when they sleep
the bottom eyelid lifts upwards, they also have a nictitating membrane sandwiched
between the eyeball & inside the other eyelids which sweeps across, the membrane is
a thin layer of tissue that closes diagonally across the eye to clean them.
Nictitating Membrane
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lower eyelids lifting upwards to sleep
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The fixed eye position is obviously one reason why the evolutionary development
of the owl has led to an owl’s ability to rotate its head the way it does, which
brings me to the next oddity; I have read that Eurasian owls can rotate their
heads through 270 degrees I read this information from a number of sources including
Wikipedia (an online encyclopedia) however I have watched our owl routinely rotate her head through 360 degrees so the 270 degree claim seems ill-informed or wrong. (I have also noticed this information word for word on other
web sites which has so obviously been copied & pasted perpetuation the claim).
picture by Nina Therese Wickmann (see link below)
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Another reason for the owl’s flexible neck is they have 14
vertebrae in their neck unlike us who have 7 in ours, it is also important to remember owls like most birds depend on feather
condition to fly which is a matter of life & death so they must have the ability to
clean & maintain their feathers which means they need to be flexible
enough to gain access to all their feathers otherwise they would be predated on & it would impact on their ability to hunt or forage.
when their feathers first grow they look like a quill with a solid covering over them but they pull this of with their beaks & also with vigorous shaking of their body & wings see below new feather.
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Their down is shed from around 3 weeks till around 12 to 14
weeks it starts with feathers growing on the wings then spreds to different parts
of their body here is where the feather growth is starting on the legs at
between 8 to 9 weeks old.
Another oddity about these birds is the ability to use the
forth toe either as a front facing toe or back facing as required, a number of
birds have zygodactyl toes (two pairs 1 pair facing front the other facing
backwards) most raptors have three facing forward one facing backwards these
birds can do both.
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I have very often read that owls are stupid In birds of prey training books although nearly always specifically by falconers (not owl keepers) I profoundly disagree with this.
I have watched my Eurasian Eagle owl very closely as she spends almost every
evening sat on a perch in my lounge watching TV with the Cat & Dog
which has given me such a great insight into her behavior. It is widely known
owls are harder to train than other raptors but I do not accept this is because
of their intelligence more to do with their very nature.
There are three principle reasons for this the first of which is
Birds of prey are principally trained using food via careful weight control. Most birds of prey have an upper stomach called a crop so even after feeding because the crop has food in it the stomach still tells the bird they are hungry. Owls do not have a crop like other raptors therefor when fed they quickly lose their keenness to come to food this is not one of the major reasons owls are harder to train & less reliable but it is something worth understanding.
The second contributing factor & an important one is Owls produce a pellet that is to say the undigested part of their food depending on what they have been predating or feeding on either fur or feather & bones is ejected through the mouth in the form of a compacted pellet although the digested waste is ejected in the normal way as poo. This can be quite random, it follows that whilst they are working a pellet up from the stomach they are not remotely interested in eating in much the same way you would likely react if you were slumped over a bowl vomiting & someone offered you a slice of pizza at these points in time you are simply wasting your time trying to get them to eat.
The last & I believe most significant is an owls Nature.
The easiest way to convey what I mean is it’s like the difference between
teaching a dog to fetch & teaching a cat to do the same, a cat is no less
intelligent than a dog probably more but by its very nature a cat is so much
harder to train, because of its independence, they are naturally aloof,
patient & fiercely independent. I believe the difference between cats & dogs
is like the difference between other raptors & owls I am not suggesting a
cat is like an owl I am just using them as a Comparison.
I think most impartial freethinking people would agree it would be
much harder training the Cat & if the trainer failed it’s easier to blame
the cats inability to learn by blaming its lack of intelligence than to admit to the
trainers inability to convey their will on the cat? I don’t speak as a cat
training expert as I am sure it would be really difficult although by no means
impossible.
My Owl Sage is clearly not stupid by any measure
(where as my Peafowl are the Opposite they are mind-numbingly stupid), Sage
however is stubborn, she is also aloof, she will only do what she wants & also
at her pace & fiercely independent all adding to the Difficulty of
training. I am not pretentious enough to set myself up as the
expert preaching to others however I am knowledgably & intelligent enough to observe an
animal’s intelligence & ability from my extensive observations. It is my view that owls are a
long way from being stupid. There are also other contributing factors which make
training an Owl more difficult but I don’t personally believe stupidity is one of them.
I think the claim that owls are stupid probably says more
about the author intelligence than it does about the Owls
The purpose of writing
this is not to have a go at falconers but in the hope that falconers might consider
the bad press they give to owls by their assertion about the owl’s stupidity
& help focus their mind on taking a more relaxed approach when training owls
given the difference between them.
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I am always amazed by the level of control our owl has over her feathers. by that
I don’t just mean the obvious like how she fluffs them all up to make herself look
bigger & more intimidating (usually while flailing her wings in a strange arc) see picture
fluffing up to intimidate
She also pulls the
tiny feathers just above her beak which changes the shape of her face or when
she lifts her ear tuffs (on female owls they normally lie quite flat) or when
she raises her chest feathers puts her wings down & in tight then brings
the chest feathers back down so effectively shuts the door to drafts in the
same way we tuck the blanket under us to achieve the same.
normal position for female’s ear tuffs & feathers above beak
ear tuffs raised plus feathers directly above beak pulled forward this means irritated
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normal chest feathers position
chest feathers lowered over wings closing the door to drafts
here she has only covered top of wings (shoulder)
The other day I watched her raise around 6 feathers in
between her wings at the back to expose her oil gland (a small 10mm thing which
looks like a nipple) she then took oil & spread it over her as part of her
grooming, I have seen her doing this in the past but had not realised she had
that level of localised control over her feathers. see pictures
lifting feathers to gain access to oil gland located on her back
This is a close up of the oil gland
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When they want to sleep they will often stand on their
elbows (when on a flat surface) when they do this they rest their toes &
curl them up see picture
when sat on elbow joint they curl their toes
Strangely they sometimes sleep laying down although they normally
grow out of this habit I should add I had no idea birds did this.
sleeping lying down
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Eurasians
vary in color but all have a white patch directly under their face this is a
vocal patch.
Following scientific European studies it was found that when
these owls call for their mate or a mate they lift their heads upright exposing
their white patch. It also showed as it got closer to full moon the more the
owls called peaking at full moon then reducing as it moved away from full moon.
The conclusion being as they are at or near the top of the food chain they do
not need to hide their location & where a mate is concerned they want to
advertise it so they call, by calling this flips their head upwards which in
turn exposes their white patch at a time when eyesight is at its best because
of the full moon. The patch is not easily seen unless they tip their head
upwards see picture
Vocal Patch can be seen when calling
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Our owl contracted Trichomoniasis also known as canker which is a frequently occurring disease in Pigeons and Doves and is also common in Falcons, Hawks and Owls. This can be fatal & needs treating as a matter of urgency.
The first pictures below shows Sage with the disease the second picture shows the same bird after 3 days of treatment using an initial antibiotic injection into her chest & orally administered Nystan (oral suspension Nystatin) the results after three days speak for themselves.
Trichomoniasis / canker
after 3 days treatment
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Our Eagle Owl has her own facebook page feel free to add her as a friend see link below
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003263065177&ref=tn_tnmn#!/profile.php?id=100003263065177
updated often so please do come back as more to follow
All images on this web site are strictly subject to copyright & may not be used without prior written consent.
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Some pictures above taken by award winning portrait photographer Nina Therese Wickmann