From Ivan Putter
Flying brown Teddy bears (Pel's Fishing Owls) of Mapungubwe (South Africa).
Since great captures of a pretty uncommon owl!
this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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Hehe, I've hidden well - no one can spot me here..
Like playing hide and seek with a toddler in comparison to other owls 😁
To be fair, they only really need to hide from fish...
Those goldfish with the upward facing eyes are probably their arch nemesis!
Made me think of tigers, who apparently look green to the animals they hunt, since they can't see red/orange. I wonder how owls see colors. And who eats them...maybe just other birds of prey?
Rats, I was just reading or watching something the other day about this but can't recall what. It was talking about how owls have a much higher rod to cone ratio of receptors in their eyes for night vision and I think it said that gives them a darker and more muted sense of color than we have, but don't quote me on that.
Bigger raptors will sometimes eat smaller ones, but human hazards are their biggest risk these days.
Huh, interesting. So many different ways of perceiving the world.
I was just reading about bridges so animals can move around the territories that got carved up by roads. The fish doorbell is fun too. It's nice to see things going more in that direction.
I always forget about the fish doorbell! 😆
I saw on here somewhere yesterday, Ireland is adding "swift bricks" to new construction to help recover the swift population. So new buildings will come with birdhouses installed! I know we have Chimney Swifts here that nest in chimneys, which I'm sure you can quickly come up with a potential hazard that poses, so maybe this is a win-win for Ireland's birds.
Every photo in the thread gives me chills. The combo of huge black eyes on a bright brown face is like a wooden mask with empty eyesockets does that too me. Doesn't make it less gorgeous (maybe even more) but Teddy Bear it definetely isn't :D
Scare Bear, then? 😅
Thay are a bit unusual looking, even for an owl, so I can see some added fear of the unnatural, and the black eyes do tend to be considered the most creepy of owl eye colors, so I get it. Many throughout mankind's history have been more than a little unsettled by our owly friends, but you still seem to appreciate them in spite of all that, so I applaud your efforts!
Thanks for posting these!
Absolutely! I am here for all your owl-related needs!
!!! Wow and a Whole New Owl (for me) even! This is better than 99.999% of the rest of the news today.
Which probably isn’t saying much. Hooray, is what I meant :D
This would make a superb plush to snuggle while reading just about any news article this year. Evil, evil, evil, owl, evil, evil meme, evil meme, evil....
Yes!
Of course this year it’s Buffy Fish - strong, protective, goofy, clever, and perfectly plush. There should be one of those!
Pretty good! Not Dilleresque enough though 😄
For as much as that thing costs, you should be able to get it with whatever hairdo one desires!
It's an Owlwok
I think we could get Lucas to make another edit. What's one more at this point? 😆
He’d never do it since it would obviously make it better . . .
I'm not super deep into Star Wars, so I searched and it seems there is at least one owl in the Star Wars universe!
Surely a contender for OoTY 🧸
I thought so too, but it's done extremely poorly. The 3 Fishing Owls are all very fluffy and fancy, which I love, but they are also very uncommon, so it'd be tough to find good pics of them, so I'm not too upset. 😜
Here are the other 2. The Pel's seems the most common.
Rufous
Vermiculated
