Shrink wrapped owls

[Derek.McManus]

Lol...the responder who says that seeing a featherless owl has ruined owls for them....remind you of anything?

[Tyto_Theropod]

I'm always happy when topics concerning natural history go viral. The general public is far to ignorant and unconcerned with the creatures they share the planet with. Although this isn't shocking to us it's a great example of bird anatomy and I'm happy to see it making the rounds. I've seen naked birds before but this owl is truly bizarre looking.

I agree wholeheartedly with this statement, people are out-of-touch with natural history in general. I photographed this Eastern Bluebird embryo after the eggs were abandoned due to an ant invasion in my nest box. One egg cracked open while I was removing them from the box, revealing this incredible study.

http://avianmusing.blogspot.com/

I agree too, I think we should definitely pay more attention to the non-human world because we are still very much connected to it. A featherless owl may not be my idea of beauty, but I find it more interesting than creepy. You can see how even the bones have adapted for the 'radar dish' function of the facial disk.

On the subject of the bird fetus, I actually found something similar just lying on a path a couple of years ago. In this case the bird had almost certainly hatched but was still naked, and it was pretty interesting to examine. The most interesting part were the two extended digits making up the wing, which could clearly be identified as fingers with the feathers absent. As far as I can remember one of them bore a tiny claw. It could just as easily have been an embryonic Troodont or Dromaeosaurid. The bird was too young for me to definitely ID it, but given its size it could have been a blackbird or another similar thrush. I'll see if I can find the picture I took sometime.