Photo by Faruk Kizil
Habichtskauz auch Uralkauz
Das Bild entstand an einer Futterstelle beim Falkner in den Niederlande.
Ural owl (Strix uralensis)
The picture was taken at a feeding place of a falconer in Netherlands.
One of the given translations called this Habich’s Owl, so I tried to find out who Habich was. Took me way too long to figure out Habich was not a person, it means goshawk in German. The German wiki entry had a lot of info the US one didn’t though.
The species is referred to as Slaguggla, or “attacking owl”, in Swedish, Habichtskauz, or “goshawk-owl”, in German or as the “long-tailed owl” in Russian.
Attempts to re-introduce the owl have been partly successful in the German-Austrian-Czech border region (Bavarian Forest , Bohemian Forest , and Šumava), and most recently in the Vienna Woods.
Austria seems to have a difficult time with the project as people keep shooting them. 🙄
‘WHAT UP’
The german language has two words for “owl”: “Eule” and “Kauz”. I’m a native speaker, but I had to look up what the difference is (Wikipedia/Deepl):
“Eule” means “owl”.
“Kauz” also means owl, but specifically the small, fat and grumpy looking kind:
Various bird genera and species from the family of true owls (Strigidae) are referred to as [Kauz]. The differentiation between the terms “Eule” and “Kauz” is a peculiarity of the German language and has no equivalent in terms of zoological systematics. [Eule] are generally rather elongated, slender bird species, whereas [Kauz] have a stocky, large-headed shape
[Eule] are considered thoughtful and wise, whereas [Kauz] are considered clumsy, eccentric and reclusive.
That’s literally it, it has nothing to do with biology. So the correct translation would be “grumpy-looking goshawk owl”. 😉
Wow, this is beautiful!
I’d heard eule before, but not kauz.
English only has one word, French has chouette and hibou, and Spanish has a lot of words, the main ones being buho (seems most common, and more specifically larger, horned owls), lechuza (barn owls), and the Mexican word tecolote (screech owl or possible pygmy owls, so seems more for small owls rather than horn/no horn). There’s a few more words I’ve seen, but most comments seemed to say if you use anything other than buho or lechuza, no one will know what you’re talking about.
The list of German owls does seem to split between eule and kauz right around the middle. I feel it’s a pretty good system!
- Barn owl (Schleiereule), Tyto alba
- Eurasian scops-owl (Zwergohreule), Otus scops
- Eurasian eagle-owl (Uhu), Bubo bubo
- Snowy owl (Schnee-Eule), Bubo scandiacus
- Northern hawk owl (Sperbereule), Surnia ulula
- Eurasian pygmy-owl (Sperlingskauz), Glaucidium passerinum
- Little owl (Steinkauz), Athene noctua
- Tawny owl (Waldkauz), Strix aluco
- Ural owl (Habichtskauz), Strix uralensis
- Long-eared owl (Waldohreule), Asio otus
- Short-eared owl (Sumpfohreule), Asio flammeus
- Boreal owl (Raufußkauz), Aegolius funereus
This photo is giving me the feeling that wings are just big hands flapping it the air.
There are definite similarities.
That’s not what I see. I see a hand with no arm directly attached to the body my some sort of wrist-elbow-thingy. The feathers are the fingers.
Ah, understood.
Like “jazz hands” but without the arm part getting in the middle.
XD
That’s a face that knows things.
It’d make a great spirit animal.
Idk why you’d want to shoot an owl with such a pretty face :( I mean I know why, people want feathers or meat or do taxidermy but like hypothetically :(
Also, I like hearing about the entomology of the names! I’m learning German so now I have a new word under my belt :)
On the Austrian side, the action was temporarily suspended due to the illegal shooting of released owls and ongoing protests by hunters who feared a negative impact on small game hunting. A specific animal protection project of the Association for Landscape Conservation & Species Protection in Bavaria eV, founded in 2015, was the reintroduction of the Ural owl in the Steinwald Nature Park in Upper Palatinate.
I’d argue the restoration of natural populations of native animals is more important than sports entertainment. The killing of the owls sounds to mainly be a protest of sorts.
Yeah, I’m fine with people hunting for food or sport but only if they don’t waste the food and they don’t over hunt or kill protected/rare species. Shooting the owls to protect small game is messed up.
I hunt whitetail deer once a year and even that much meat is barely worth the effort.
Most hunters I’ve met are decent people who care about animals and the environment, but then you have some real oddballs at the other end of the spectrum. I don’t know if those types have respect for much of anything, themselves included. I don’t know all the small mammals available in Austria, but if they’re much like squirrels or rabbits in NA, they aren’t all that exciting and tasty to be violating federal laws over.
The owls didn’t leave or die off because they’ve lost their role, they’ve been eliminated by this same type of thoughtlessness. You will have a better overall environment, including for hunting, if you take care of your ecosystem, mainly by leaving it the heck alone.
Ah gotcha. That makes sense.
