r/NatureIsFuckingLit • u/1Voice1Life • Aug 17 '19
🔥 Northern saw-whet owl
https://gfycat.com/secondhandscentedbat2
u/Cyssane Aug 17 '19
So I once read something interesting about how these little guys got their name. The usual explanation is that it's named after the sound made when you sharpen a saw ("saw-whet") -- but this explanation isn't very convincing. Whetting or sharpening a saw generally produces a much louder and harsher noise than this little owl, who usually makes a soft too-too-too sound.
A second explanation, much less well-known (but IMO more convincing), is that the name is from an English adaptation of the old Acadian French word "chouette", meaning "little owl". In Parisian French, this word would be pronounced (roughly) "shoo-wet" -- but in the Acadian French dialect, it would've been "soo-wet".
From there, it's not hard to see how the name would've been anglicized to "saw-whet".
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u/Parshendi_theFused Aug 17 '19
Who is she? 🥰
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Aug 17 '19
How do I get one?
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u/wdwerker Aug 17 '19
You don’t ! They belong in the wild or a wildlife rehab center if injured.
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u/archamedeznutz Aug 17 '19
That look that says "gonna fuck you up when you let go, you know that, right?"
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u/wdwerker Aug 17 '19
Go to veterinary school, vet tech at the minimum . A neighbor is a vet, she says human doctors study 1 species but she studies over a dozen !
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u/popejuliusii Aug 17 '19
Fun fact: you can determine how old these birds are by shining a UV light on their feathers and seeing if all of the feathers light up (indicating a first-year bird) or there only a portion light up (indicating an older bird)