September Bird Club

September’s meeting began as usual with a review of birds members have been enjoying in their pursuits and yards, sharing photos of birds recently added to individual county lists, and a discussion of several upcoming birding events taking place this month in our area. 

One of the topics that did come up was the eye color of owls. Did you realize an owl’s eye color is often related to their preferred hunting time and activity pattern? Owls who are nocturnal and prefer hunting in the dark of night appear to have evolved with dark brown or black eyes which aids in facial camouflage. An example of these would be barred owl and barn owls. Where as birds who are active and hunt during daylight hours as snowy owls often have yellow eyes which can more easily tolerate bright daylight conditions. But for every owl that fits this rule there’s an outlyer that doesn’t. So actually owl eye color remains something of a mystery. While researchers continue to investigate the role of evolution, behaviour and diet, there is still no single explanation that works for every species.

Isn’t nature amazing!