Here’re the promised photos of the adults. Don’t ask me which is the male and which is the female – unless I was lucky enough to observe sexually distinctive behavior (like tearing up prey and feeding it to the owlets, which only the female will do), there’s no way for me to know.
Alternately, if both owls suddenly took leave of their senses and let me get hold of them, I might be able to determine their sex by weighing them, because females are generally heavier than males. (That’s known as “reverse sexual size dimorphism,” if you want to impress your friends.) However, there’s some overlap of their normal weight ranges, so even weighing them doesn’t guarantee an answer. Fortunately, somehow, the owls have it all figured-out.
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For some reason I think the picture on the left is the male and the one on the right is the female. The latter seems more bulky, even as the head on the former appears more massive. I am so glad to see both of them and the images are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny. I came to comment that I think the one on the right is the female as well. S/He seems to be more "at attention"--as you would expect the female to be.
ReplyDeleteToo bad we'll never know for sure.
I noticed the last owlet it gone this evening. I guess that's it until next year!
There may be a few more updates, if I have owl sitings.
ReplyDelete