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.
8 Comments
You@feddit.org · 7 pts · 116d
You got that wrong - that tree isn't yours, it belongs to the owl.
Just kidding, wish I had such cute neighbours.
anon6789@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 116d
That smirk is so precious 😍
Spider-owl, spider-owl, goes wherever a spider-owl can...
makyo@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 116d
What a fuzzball
Can we tell a gender from this shot?
anon6789@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 116d
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.
makyo@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 116d
Very interesting thanks!
anon6789@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 116d
My pleasure!
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 116d
Owl.
Anissem@lemmy.ml · 0 pts · 116d
Not that I know of