From Sriram Udhaya
Perfectly still.Perfectly hidden. Watching everything. A Long-eared Owl, blending so effortlessly into the forest that it felt like the tree itself had come alive. No movement. No sound. Just patience, the kind only wild creatures truly understand.
Bird: Long eared owl
Location :USA
Gear: Nikon Z9 and 600 f4
Are Owls as fluffy as they look? I assume they’re not too keen on cuddles, though…
They are actually even fluffier than they look!
Owls are 40-60% feather by volume. There’s not really near as much actual bird as you’d probably imagine. Also, the feathers, due to their structural changes to aid in silent flight, are noticeably softer than other bird feathers. They are packed less densely with barbs (the soft parts that stick of the hard vane of the feather) and they have more give to them. I’d read about this before finally getting to handle some, and it was still shocking to feel the difference.
You are correct that they don’t enjoy cuddles. Cuddling seems to be much more a mammalian thing. Birds don’t seem to like being touched, as anything that could damage their wings or feathers is life threatening. No flight means no way to secure food, shelter, or safety.
I’ve seen birds that enjoy being touched, and even pet. Mostly parrots and cockatoos I think. But they’re highly social birds, not silent hunters like owls.
It always slips my mind that those types of birds are still wild animals. I kind of assumed the ones kept as pets are domesticated breeds, but looking it up now, it seems they aren’t. They are just often ones raised by people. The owls that people touch like pets are the same way. This is why we don’t get to touch the owls at the rehab any more than medically necessary, but why the falconers can touch their birds.
People debate where the line is between being acclimated to something vs enjoying something, and that is something one has to determine if they decide to keep captive birds. I’ve seen some birds that look ok as pets, and others that have looked really miserable.