Barn Owls are THE BEST. They are in a separate family from all other North American owls, and instead of whoo hoooting they do the TV STATIC SCREAM FROM YOUR NIGHTMARES.
Gotta love the raptor presentations at the state parks! This was at Lockhart State Park tonight at our Master Naturalist meeting. These presenters rehabilitate injured birds of prey through Austin Wildlife Rescue (austinwildliferescue.org), an organization that always NEEDS VOLUNTEERS to help out with the adorable baby animals. If you’re in Central Texas, check them out!
June 18, 2018
The barn owls are members of the family “tytonidae” while every other owl species is a member of the “strigadae” family.
While we typically think of owls like the one in the original post as being barn owls, every species in the family can technically be considered a barn owl.
This includes the various species of masked owls which are relatively similar to your common barn owl
As well as both varieties of sooty owl which are strikingly different than the common barn owl
There are also the grass owls which are behaviorally different than other barn owls in their habits of living on the ground rather than trees
And the two odd tytos out, the red owl and ashy faced owl respectively. Scientists know almost nothing about the former and no individuals have been kept in captivity despite being discovered quite some time ago. Even photographs of it are rare, but it appears to be an orange barn owl with a pink face.
Structurally speaking, barn owls actually have very few traits in common with strigadae owls as their face and beak shapes and proportions are entirely different. There are also differences in their legs and talons, while their similarities are limited to feather composition, ear placement, spinal structure, and binocular vision among a few other internal components.
That being said, barn owls are far from the only family of non-hooting owls as hooting is almost exclusive to larger species, typically genus Strix or bubo. Many other species will trill, screech, and/or hiss.
Barn owls are rather unique in having an incredibly keen sense of hearing, even in comparison to other owls. They can hear and discern between different heartbeats and triangulate the sound perfectly due to their satellite dish-like face shape.
In addition, this barn owl is not actually Tyto alba, it’s a Tyto furcuta, T. alba is the species native to Western Europe while T. furcuta is native to North America.
Many thanks for this owlditional quality content. I give three screams of approval 👍
bay owls (genus Phodilus) are in Tytonidae and they are some of my favorite owls of all time. they can be found in Southeast Asia, and some sites claim central Africa as well but I’m not sure?
they can shut their eyes and look eyeless
OR OPEN THEIR EYES WIDE THIS AND LOOK LIKE DEMONS
did I mention they have the best judgemental faces because of their eye positioning
and babies look like tiny demonic gryphons
last I went looking, not a lot is known about bay owl behavior aside from general Tyto habits. I just know they’re so out there appearance-wise and I love them so much for it.
Can I just say, from the bottom of my heart, in regards to Dewayne Johnson winning his lawsuit against Monsanto and being awarded $289 million in damages and also lost 11 BILLION in stock value following the jury’s decision and also opened up legal precedent against Monsanto for other people to go after them for damages thanks to exposure to their shit;
FUCKING GOOD, and also my deepest sympathy to Mr. Johnson, who has terminal cancer thanks to their products, but FUCKING GOOD, FUCK YOU MONSANTO, SUCK A THOUSAND HORSE DICKS IN HELL
Consider this my open request to society: destroy them. If you have the money and the misfortune of being able to take these fuckers to court, then destroy them.
They’ve got other similar lawsuits still ongoing against them right now that total $5.5 BILLION in damages sought.
This lawsuit can now be cited by all the others, and I promise it will be.
And gods, but I hope that it ruins them.
For those of you who don’t recognize the name “Monsanto” they produce Roundup, which is a herbicide (weed killer) known for killing weeds but not crops.
Roundup, incidentally, is specifically the chemical that Mr. Johnson was exposed to that contributed to his terminal cancer.
There are about 5,000 more current lawsuits being filed against Monsanto for the same thing. Monsanto claims Roundup is safe, and points to lots of studies done on it…the majority of which, coincidentally, have been conducted by/funded by Monsanto.
One of the main points in the trial was recently unearthed evidence that shows that Monsanto has been actively suppressing studies that show that Roundup is dangerous for decades now.
The men who hid this evidence are, in no small way, complicit in the deaths of these innocent people and should be removed root and branch.
There’s an irony to that. And one we should pursue until they feel the burden of these deaths on their souls and on their daily lives.
Some more info; there’s also evidence that points to Monsanto paying off EPA agents to suppress studies and evidence that show that Roundup is a potent health risk.
Monsanto is, as it has for decades, claiming that glysophate…the active ingredient in Roundup…is safe. Which, as disclosed at this trial, is a lie, and they’ve been suppressing the evidence for years.
BUT, in addition, testing has shown that Roundup contains VERY DANGEROUS levels of heavy metals such as arsenic, chromium, cobalt, and lead, in addition to highly toxic petroleum residues, which Monsanto does not disclose on the labels. They were hidden under ‘other additives’ on the label.
Some of the things arsenic, other heavy metals, and petroleum distillate exposure can cause?
Cancer. Such as that which is killing Mr. Johnson and others.
The studies conducted by Monsanto to claim Roundup was safe were only conducted on glysophate. They actively suppressed studies that found that glysophate could be a health risk, and did not disclose any information about the other dangerous additives…which have been known to be dangerous for decades.
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