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[–] 5 points 6 months ago (5 children)

What a fuzzball

Can we tell a gender from this shot?

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (2 children)

    Getting weight and wing measurements of adults can get you a reasonably (90-ish %) accurate idea of gender. For babies, they'd have to check chromosomes. With adults, you can see if they lay an egg or develop a brood patch, and some will do other gender role type activities that can help distinguish them.

    A handful of owls will have some visual indicators, but they're not always very accurate. Barn Owl females usually have more belly spots and a browner "beard", but it isn't too difficult to find examples that break that guideline.

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  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago

    That smirk is so precious 😍

    Spider-owl, spider-owl, goes wherever a spider-owl can...

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