Transforming Owl (Very Cool)

This is a truly odd animal video! Not only is it in Japanese (which is odd if you're an American who doesn't understand Japanese, like me) but it shows an owl exhibiting some fascinating behavior. Check it out and be sure to watch the whole thing so see the strangest stuff.

You might not know that small owl species are sometimes on the menu for larger owl species. When faced with the barn owl, which is only slightly larger than itself, the Transformer owl puffs itself up to look as big as possible in an effort to scare the barn owl away. When faced with the second, much larger owl, however, it does the exact opposite. By elongating its body, flattening its feathers and squinting its eyes, this little owl mimics a dead branch in the hopes of camouflaging itself from the larger bird.

That is the craziest bird transformation i have ever seen, not only did i not know an owl with this ability existed, but i had no idea such a transformation could even been done by a any bird, its such an extreme change in appearance.

Discovery

Edited to add:

the owl is Ptilopsis leucotis, which goes by the common names northern white-faced or white-faced scops owl.

[edit on 5/17/2010 by Alaskan Man]

hahahahahahaha damn that **** was funny!!!!
Is this real?

reply to post by Alaskan Man


Thanks for the laugh.
The last one what was he trying to be? a cat? or simply a sick meal?

reply to post by Alaskan Man


Japanese shows always make me chuckle.

That owl is really cool and impressive. Nature never ceases to amaze me.

[edit on 17/5/2010 by Chamberf=6]

That was a good find Op. I never knew Owls had the ability to do such a thing with there bodies. However, I think now I'm going to have nightmares tonight because the owl kind of scared me a little bit.

O RLY??

That owl looked like a demon when it went into that morph! If it's trying to be intimidating, it was on the right track!

Holy Moloch!

That's a scary owl.

Thanks for sharing!

LOL omg I can't stop laughing. It lookedso evil at the end!! LOL I love birds

reply to post by Alaskan Man

however, it does the exact opposite. By elongating its body, flattening its feathers and squinting its eyes, this little owl mimics a dead branch in the hopes of camouflaging itself from the larger bird.

Well, I can't say I have ever seen a dead branch that looked like that. What it looked like to me (kind of) was a cat. When they're sitting on their hind legs and standing on their front ones. Like so:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ceb94173bf8f.jpg[/atsimg] [atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/43228fe6e4e9.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by impaired



Exactly my thoughts. This guy can surely intimidate. Now i know where the ninjas and samurais got their styles and looks from.

I love owls. A barn owl lives outside my house and specialized in lizards


Also great find, thanks for sharing OP S&F

[edit on 18-5-2010 by Dynamitrios]

Those are some strange transformations. I am glad I was able to see this on video, since I would probably never see this in nature.

I wonder what triggers the reaction, if it's just instinct or learned.

Thanks for sharing this with us.

now thats what i call shape shifting

Very cool video! That is one innovative creature!
P.S. to the OP: Hogan is one of my top 3 favorite authors

What a beautiful beautiful animals......for some reason does the Owl make me think about cats. Great find thx....

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing this video!


It seems to me like the first transformation -- when the owl was faced with the Barn Owl "opponent", it was trying to make itself seem more imposing -- larger, aggressive. It wanted to battle.

I think it was scared squirless of the second owl, and wanted to make itself seem meek, frail, timid, sickly. The owl didn't want to rumble. As the handler was carring the "opponent" owl around, the first one always kept its smaller profile turned toward it.

Absolutely amazing!

LOL!!!
To me it looks like a Sphynx

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/c3d4b209853f.jpg[/atsimg]

Awesome video!
S&F I didn`t know about this

Japanese (or just Asian in general) television always cracks me up because it seems so absurd & over the top. However, one day I left the t.v. on mute after answering a phone call & noticed that many American commercials, sitcoms and game shows seemed just as goofy & bizarre as other foreign ones had always appeared to be. Maybe if the world was silent we'd all be able to have a more objective perspective of ourselves....
Nonetheless, Asian t.v. still cracks me up.
I watched the vid before reading the OP's commentary & I thought the smaller owl was trying to impersonate a Horned Owl or a falcon or some other larger bird of prey. But a stick? Nope, that would definitely not have been in my first 20 guesses.
Interesting video, thanks for learnin' me something today OP.

Owls are very interesting, curious birds. Owls sometimes also study a prey, watch it and wait for more to come out, lets say mice or rats. An owl will also go after larger prey, like rabbits. The owl will swoop down and grab the prey from above and take the rabbit up high and drop the rabbit to its death to later feed on. I like owls, they are fun to watch. They come in all different sizes, shapes,colors and do basically wierd things. They can screech, sounds like something screamming in the woods. Scarey, if you ask me, or the basic hoot you hear.

I use wooden owls like these to scare away woodpeckers!

S & F definitely. That is an incredible owl!!

Thanks for the video.