Short-Eared Owl

Brilliant image Krish. Eye contact and look back pose is top notch. Nailed this.

Wonderful image of this beauty, Krish! Great pose, detail-love those eyes, and beautiful complementary colour palette.

Carol.

Terrific image of this short eared owl. The fact his "ear feathers" are up is a big plus insofar as an image of this species since most of the time their head appears round. Wonderful pose and side lighting in this image that enhances the detail. I'm interested to know about it's overall fairly dark plumage. Many years ago I had about a dozen in my sight at the same time and 3 of them also had this darker (very nice)plumage. Is there any correlation between sexes, or age that accounts for this darker plumage, or is it only a variation in color among some adults ?

david fletcher wrote:Brilliant image Krish.  Eye contact and look back pose is top notch. Nailed this.

Thank you so much !! Glad you like it.

Carol Clarke wrote:Wonderful image of this beauty, Krish! Great pose, detail-love those eyes, and beautiful complementary colour palette.

Carol.

Thank you so much Carol!! The colour palette was just a happy coincidence 

ADKShooter wrote:Terrific image of this short eared owl. The fact his "ear feathers" are up is a big plus insofar as an image of this species since most of the time their head appears round. Wonderful pose and side lighting in this image that enhances the detail. I'm interested to know about it's overall fairly dark plumage.  Many years ago I had about a dozen in my sight at the same time and 3 of them also had this darker (very nice)plumage. Is there any correlation between sexes, or age that accounts for this darker plumage, or is it only a variation in color among some adults ?

Thank you so much !! I have often wondered about this difference ! Here in Western India we only ever get to see the dark coloured ones. The ones I see in photographs from all over the world, particularly from North America, seem light coloured.  Could be a regional variation of sub-species', I'm guessing. Haven't been to able to find any articles commenting on it, either. I did however read somewhere that they move around widely within regions, as seasons change.

Having a dozen in sight - wow !! that must have been something !! 

Krish, Nice image. Very well taken.