I think we should stop using “chicken” as a word for “coward” because have you ever met a chicken? Chickens ain’t scared of shit. Chicken is ready to throw down at all times.
It looks like the raven really wants the owl to leave and is trying to intimidate it, but the owl doesn’t care because it knows the raven is all bark and no bite. Or all squawk and no peck. Erm…
Actually, it looks more like the raven is curious about the funny bird and wants to sit next to it, and the owl doesn’t wanna be friends :[ The raven’s body language isn’t aggressive at all — it’s backing down appropriately when the owl displays aggression. Notice the way it’s careful to draw back every time it gets too close to the owl. This is an animal that’s trying to establish it isn’t a threat.
Keep in mind there’s a huge intellect disparity here — ravens exhibit novel tool use and complex communication, whereas owls aren’t even as smart as ducks. We’re sort of trained to view crows and ravens as villainous, but really they’re very playful animals.
“HI YOU’RE PRETTY WANNA BE FRIENDS??”
“HISSS”
This is so cute ‘cause I can imagine the crow being the talkative, friendly one and he’s just like “hi gosh wow you’re pretty I’ve never seen a white crow before! How’d ya get your feathers so white? Do you eat a lot of marshmallows? I eat a lot of marshmallows! This human lady feeds me marshmallows–” and on and on and the owl’s probably just like “What no go away”
This is adorable
My whole childhood just got ruined by that “owls aren’t even as smart as ducks”
Hi Dr Ferox! I saw this guy today and thought you might be interested – he’s got 3 legs! I didn’t see it til he flew away, but you can see it in the zoomed in photo!
It’s still hard for me to see, but it doesn’t seem to have slowed the fellow down at all.
That is really cool! You don’t often see a perfectly functioning animal with an abnormal number of limbs in the wild. He looks healthy.
BettSplendens Tumblr Evac 