I have eyes in the back of my head!

Hi all…today is Tuesday thanks to the public holiday yesterday so a short week left for all of you. It is always nice to start the week with this in mind. Some of you may have read my comment on the previous post already but for those of you who don’t know yet, this week is going to be a bird week. Every post this week will feature birds of some kind so I hope you enjoy it.

So to kick-off bird week, today’s post features the Pearl Spotted Owl. It is one of the smallest owls in South Africa. What I love about this owl, and managed to photograph here, is that it has mock eyes in the back of its head. This is to confuse predators as to which way the owl is facing. This species of owl typically hunts by day and mostly preys on insects, bats, small invertebrates, rodents etc. They do however have powerful talons which allow it to catch birds up to the size of small weavers, small mammals and reptiles.

Take a look at this interesting little fellow and let me know what you think…

Back with ‘mock eyes’

Front with yellow eyes

Cheers til tomorrow’s next bird post.

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