From Rendy Shuya

Camouflaged Burrowing Owl - Aug 2026 - Alberta, Canada

From Birding Iran

Omani Owl (Strix butleri) in east of Iran.

Amir Kouhestani found the first record of this species for South Khorasan Province in Nehbandan on June 12. Omani Owl has a vast distribution in Iran and probably it breeds in Afghanistan too.

So, I normally don't like sharing anonymous posts from essentially anonymous sources, but I couldn't find this pic shared anywhere else, so it's at least not obviously stolen, and it lead me to some interesting reading, do I'm going to share anyway.

I didn't get to read this paper in full yet to verify the claims, but it does seem a short paper was published about previously undocumented territorial expansion of both the Omani Owl and the Brown Fish Owl to Iran.

The interesting bits I saw include name changes for both owls and concerning the timeline owl the discoveries.

One suggestion is to change the name Omani Owl to Golden Owl, as it was named when it was thought to only be in Oman. The other is to name the subspecies of Brown Fish Owl to the Western Brown Fish Owl. It seems they were in the Iran area around 1900 but then went locally extinct, but are now back.

I also saw mention the owls were photographed around 10 years before they started being publicly noticed. The original photographer of the oldest known modern picture was not aware of what a rare bird they had captured in the country. I thought that was a fun fact.

I think Omani (Golden?) Owls look very unique and they're pretty rare, so I just felt like searching for some info on them.

From Cheta Chua

Tawny Fish Owl Nanling National Forest Park, Guangdong, China

One of the biggest owls in the world and 50% taller than our own eagle owl!* This owl feeds primarily on fish, our PH Eagle Owl apparently does the same but this is the first time I've ever seen an owl in the water!

OM1-MKII with OM 100-400MM F 5.0 - 6.3 II

f6.0 | 6400 ISO | 1/20s handheld

*They're referring to the Philippine Eagle Owl if that wasn't clear, NOT the Eurasian Eagle Owl you probably pictured. Photographer is posting to a Philippine birding group. Here is the Philippine Eagle Owl, which is their largest owl.

Size comparisons of the Philippine Eagle Owl, Tawny Fish, and Eurasian Eagle:

PEO: 16-20in/40-50cm
TFO: 19-24in/50-60cm
EEO: 24-30in/60-75cm

From William Ko

A lovely buffy fish owl couple perched side by side on a sturdy branch, surrounded by lush green foliage with soft, natural lighting and a creamy blurred background!

31July 26 | 6.46pm Hampstead Wetlands Reserve, Singapore

From Henrik Nilsson

A short eared owl comes in to land.

In the interest of full disclosure, this is a big crop. Additionally, I decided on this edit as it cropped out an ugly metal post the owl was about to land on.

Canon 5D III with Canon 600mm f4 II. 1/1,600 sec at f4.5, ISO 1,000. Manual exposure. Jan 2013.

British Columbia, Canada.

From Rob Palmer

Young barn owl just before sunrise

From Ojai Raptor Center

As soon as our young fledgling patients are old enough, they are moved into outside enclosures where they can continue developing in a more natural setting. This stage is important for every species we care for. Young raptors need room to move, perch, stretch their wings, build strength, practice balance, and gradually prepare for life back in the wild.

Each enclosure is set up with the needs of that species in mind. Different raptors use space in different ways, so the perches, shelter, layout, height, and hiding areas all need to be tailored to the species being housed there.

For cavity-nesting species like Western Screech Owls and Barn Owls, nesting boxes are especially important. These owls naturally use enclosed spaces such as tree cavities, barns, buildings, and nest boxes. Providing nesting boxes inside their enclosures mimics what they would experience in the wild with their families, and gives them a safe, sheltered place to rest and hide while they grow.

A key part of rehabilitation is understanding each species' natural history, so we can provide housing that supports their needs until they are ready to return to the wild.

From Steve Gettle

"A Splash of Color" - Great Horned Owl - Howell Nature Center, Howell, MI CC

This image was made by shooting through some fall foliage in the foreground. The yellow leaves in the back add an additional color to the composition. A very narrow depth of field keeps everything except the owls eye in a nice out-of-focus blur.

Good luck and Good Light! Steve

Image: Great Horned Owl - Howell Nature Center, Howell, MI CC Nikon D5, 200-400mm, 1/250th @ f5.6, ISO 200, Image cropped 10% for Instagram format

From Jen Marie

Surrounded by Mayapples, a baby barred owl hooks its beak into a tree and flaps its wings in order to climb up and off the ground. When baby owls first leave the nest, they can't fly very well and often tumble to the ground, needing to climb back up into a tree. The climbing helps strengthen their flight muscles.

From Peter Stevens

An Eastern Barn Owl in the Liverpool Plains region of NSW

The third barn owl, Tyto javanica. Found from India through Australia, and recently NZ.

The other 2 are Tyto alba, the Eastern Barn Owl, and Tyto furcata, the American Barn Owl.

From Usha Ravi

Hume's Hawk Owl is a rare boobook owl from the Andaman Islands.

It used to be considered a subspecies of the Brown Hawk Owl.

From ARC

In our last post, we looked at the incredible structure of owl feathers and how they allow these birds to achieve near-silent flight. One of the keys to that stealth is their velvety softness, which helps muffle sound and reduce air friction.

This velvet texture is created by structures called pennula, which are long, wisp-like filaments on the feather. Under a microscope, you can clearly see these long filaments on a tail feather from a great horned owl (first picture).

For comparison, the second image shows a microscopic view of a red-tailed hawk tail feather. This feather lacks those long, downy filaments. Instead, it features a tight, interlocking alignment of barbs and barbules, creating a smooth, streamlined surface built for aerodynamic efficiency instead of quiet flight.

Here's their original post. I think most of you have already heard me talk about this part a bunch, so I was originally going to skip it, but since they mentioned it, here it is.

Most owl species have incredibly soft feathers, which allow them to hunt almost silently and sneak up on unsuspecting prey in the dark.

Great-horned owl feathers, like Nonamé's in the first picture, are an excellent example. Great-horned owls have wide, oversized flight feathers that create a massive wing surface area relative to their body size. This low "wing loading" gives them tons of lift with minimal effort, meaning they barely have to flap to stay aloft. Less flapping automatically means a much quieter flight!

The feathers themselves are designed for stealth. Some of the primary flight feathers feature comb-like serrations on the leading edge (shown in the second picture) that break rushing air into tiny, quiet micro-currents. A velvety surface texture then absorbs any leftover sound, while a fringed trailing edge cleanly blends the air currents as they leave the wing (third picture).

A deeper dive:

From The feather's multi-functional structure across nano to macro scales inspires hierarchical design

Aerodynamic constraints drive microscopic functional morphology: variation in barbule shape can be examined between species, across a wing and even over a single feather. For example, some distal barbules bear lobes on their dorsal side (figure 6D) that interact with the ramus of other feathers, creating mechanical fastening zones between two adjacent overlapping feathers to form a continuous wing planform.

Termed 'directional Velcro', these distinctive underlapping three-dimensional hooking microstructures probabilistically fasten on to overlapping two-dimensionally hooked rami during wing extension (when the wing is spread out), and automatically unlock during wing flexion (when the wing is tucked in). This unique probabilistic mechanical fastener is secure, reversible and repeatable, but also makes a Velcro-like noise.

Consequently, silent fliers lack them. Instead, elongated pennula create a velvet-like feather surface that makes owl flight extremely quiet (figure 6E). These pennula reach their full length only in wing regions where flow separation occurs.

From Alan Benson

To Celebrate World Photography Day

Here is my most liked Photo ever with over a million likes and over 2.5 million views and my most stolen image ever and reposted by hundreds as their own, nothing I can do about it and it`s been going on for a few years now I just think that it must good then as everybody wants it ...lol

Thank you to all the great wildlife photographers! I appreciate your extreme patience and deep knowledge of your equipment and the animals.

From Owl Rescue Centre

We rescued this dirty little budgie from Eagle Spring Works in the south of Johannesburg this afternoon. He decided to take a midnight bath in a drum of old machine oil, which for owls is fairly common-if you have owls and you have old oil, eventually you will have one that looks like this.

We'll give him a few foam baths over the next few days to make him more presentable. He will also need to sleep in an incubator, as he cannot control his body temperature in his current condition. But he is a feisty lad and should be fine in time. 😉

In the comments, they also mentioned that red skin you can see is irritated/burned from exposure to the oil, so that will get topical treatment as well. I'm glad this guy has found its way to good hands!

From Boon Tong Teo

Buffy Fish Owl young one got a visit from the Oriental Pied Hornbill; a little too close of a visit. Mum and dad were watching closely nearby.

From Jason Roach

Short Eared Owl giving me the right evils. Holding onto its prey thinking that I want to pinch that delicious breakfast. Think I'll pass 😂

North Pennines, UK

Canon R6ii Sigma 150-600mm C

From Misty O'Neil Epstein

How sweet are these two Burrowing owl juveniles? Look at the front one's tiny tail feathers; everything about them is too cute!

From Michael J Mitchell

Barn owl family flying around on the hunt and also perching. Very exciting to witness flying in the morning light. July 24,2026 - in Irvine, CA.

We did a behind the scenes tour today and got to get up close to a few residents. The owls were not ones where we got to go into their exhibits, but they were mostly very visible.

They had a male and female together, though the female seemed annoyed by the male moving about. She kept glaring at him and shooting him nasty looks. Adorable expressions on both though.

It was pretty hot and I was surprised they were out and about, but they have AC available, should they desire.

They also had a pair of Great Horned and a pair of Barred Owls.

The one Barred here was very interesting. This one is from the olden days, so it is missing an entire wing. It was amputated after injury. Nowadays, only up to the elbow can be removed. Removing the entire wing causes a lot of balance issues and makes it hard to have his quality of life. This one has been around since 1982, I believe the guide told us, so this old timer has beaten the odds.

The other Barred and the GHO were hard to get a decent photo of due to where they were.