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A Bald Screech Owl Gives Us a Good Look at some Anatomy (infosec.pub)

submitted 6 days ago by anon6789@lemmy.world to c/superbowl@lemmy.world

25 comments fedilink hide all child comments

From International Owl Center

JR the Eastern Screech-Owl has lost virtually all of his head feathers at once, as often happens for his species. It allows you to see all the new feathers growing in, and you can look into his ear holes and see the dark thing inside, which is the side of his eyeball.

He is very itchy right now, so as a human imprint he wants us to scratch his head a lot (he would normally do this with his mate). His bill was also in serious need of trimming, so we just snipped the tip off and bit by bit, during the head rubs, we were able to file the sides of the tip (the photos were before the filing was finished.)

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[–] Jojowski@sopuli.xyz 9 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Does the bill grow like nails do or will it stop growing at some point? Could you tell us more about the bill and how the owl would trim/take care of it in the nature?

I realized I've never thought about it and just assumed it stops growing once the bird reaches maturity!

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Beak trimming is called "coping."

Beaks are made of keratin like our hair and nails. Captive birds will typically/hopefully have much better diets than wild birds, so this increases Keratin production since they're so full of nutrients.

The process looks a lot like trimming cat or dog nails. It just gets a reshaping to make sure everything can stay working properly.

GHO with overgrown beak

Short Video

Right to the trimming

Text for those who'd rather read.

[–] Jojowski@sopuli.xyz 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Great info once again! Thank you!

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Glad you enjoyed it!

[–] Aviandelight@mander.xyz 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I believe the bill keeps growing. I don't know if all birds are like this but I know it's an issue for captive parrots. Luckily I've never had to trim any of my parrots because I make sure to give them plenty of things to chew on. I'd imagine that owls naturally keep their bills shorn with diet (bones) and foraging.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

I hear our owl ambassador does *not *enjoy his being trimmed, so anyone that actually does presentations with him gets out of doing it so Elliott doesn't start hating them too. He's a pretty cranky bird in general, so all the things he doesn't like get pawned off onto people he already doesn't care for so he can actually have some staff to help him out.