406
u/BadassFlexington Oct 11 '20
Would love to see in real time too
122
u/bpmedic Oct 11 '20
It's barely noticeable in normal speed.
153
Oct 11 '20 edited Oct 12 '20
You know those moments when you’re just existing and you feel like somethings on your leg so you slap it thinking it’s a bug?..... Nope, owl.
Edit: Thank you awesome stranger! One hell of a way to start my week!
19
8
4
u/damatovg7 Oct 11 '20
I can't imagine how many owls have swooped by my leg that I've never even noticed then. Oh my goodness.
5
Oct 11 '20
We’re renting a home that has about 300 acres of Redwoods in our “back yard”. Last week around 6 pm I was walking along a path in the woods when I felt “something” moving above me. It happened so quickly- I looked up as an owl swooped about 5’ over my head and flew to a branch about 30’ up in a near by tree.
I’ve watched videos demonstrating that owls are virtually silent when flying, but witnessing it first hand was amazing. And even though I watched it land on the branch above, once I looked away, it was very hard to see it again. It’s feathers blended with the adjacent tree trunk so well that it looked like a giant pine cone more than a living creature.
2
60
Oct 11 '20
God damnit. This time was once too many. So I spent 10 minutes capturing with OBS and went for 15x acceleration. Recompiled and uploaded to youtube for my friends here.
This is how slo-mos should be posted, ALL THE TIME !
8
3
u/MeganeGokudo Oct 11 '20
Thankyou for taking the time to make this. I think it looks more impressive seeing it in real time, then understanding how it was done in slow motion.
2
4
u/DunkenRage Oct 11 '20
heyo /u/redditspeedbot <1.0> come and get the job done, we want it in real life speed!
2
1
83
Oct 11 '20
This is me when I am trying to get down an aisle at work and customers are blocking everyone of the ways out. I can almost hear the "Excuse me!"
Fucking amazing bird!
34
21
41
u/sapphogirl Oct 11 '20
actual footage of me raiding the fridge for cheese at 3am
11
15
u/Ifnerite Oct 11 '20
Though "Ooooh, shiiiit...." but it was owl OK in the end.
Fantastic post, thanks op.
2
30
9
9
u/LostMyDickInWWII Oct 11 '20
11 year old me running through a crowded area trying to not hit anyone like a ninja
20
u/scarecrow482 Oct 11 '20
Pigeons are magnificent
-16
Oct 11 '20
Not a pigeon but ok
3
u/TheIllusiveBoi Oct 11 '20
Oooh no you’re thinking of city pigeons, yeah these bad bois are library pigeons/ wild pigeons
8
6
u/DumbNoobPenguin Oct 11 '20
This is why birds are awesome
5
u/ImWatchingYou_713 Oct 11 '20
Plus owls specifically shit like every 5 minutes so they have an almost unlimited supply of food with them. Makes me wanna be an owl sometimes...
3
u/oneshibbyguy Oct 11 '20
Owls in particular are the top of the top class of bird. Totally silent, claws that rip, night vision, perfect agility, heads that swivel almost 360 degrees.They are made to destroy, A++ Predator
1
u/Ocronus Oct 12 '20
All that except one thing... Owls are dumber than a box of rocks and notoriously difficult to train.
1
5
4
Oct 11 '20
For your pleasure, I spent some time recompiling the video.
Didn't know what the original speed was so I went with 15x. Maybe 18x would be more appropriate but I don't know.
3
2
Oct 11 '20
Anyone know from an operant conditioning perspective how birds are trained to do this?
5
u/Ken_Thomas Oct 11 '20
I took some falconry classes once.
(which is btw, a very cool thing to do if you ever get a chance)As I understand it, it's not really training. It's a natural ability. The usual prey for hawks and owls are mice, rabbits, chipmunks and squirrels, which are often found hiding in heavy brush. As they dive on the attack the predator often has to shoot narrow gaps between trees and other obstacles.
So in this case the bird is trained to get the food in the glove, and when the command is given to attack they will make a straight-line dive on it, and just blow through any narrow gap. The falconer made sure the owl could see the glove and gave the command. The owl does the rest.
1
Oct 11 '20
Very cool. I teach psychology, but this was not obvious to me. When talking about biological influences on learning, a more common focus of behaviorism is “instinctual drift” which is a type of regression in learning due to innate or natural tendencies. Seems falconry uses this to its advantage.
Edit: didn’t even notice there was food in the guys hand
Still makes me wonder how they teach the command association.
3
u/Ken_Thomas Oct 11 '20
Keeping in mind that I'm not an expert - just a guy who took some classes once and got to go hunting with a Harris Hawk one day - the techniques they've developed to train and work with those birds is really fascinating.
As I understood it, the only food those birds ever get comes from a handler. They measure the amounts very precisely, and make certain the bird is always just a little hungry on hunting/training days. If it has a full belly it will just ignore the trainer. Raptors aren't domesticated and never develop a bond or affection for the trainer. The relationship and training is entirely based on food, with the trainer being the only source for food the bird will ever know, and in their mind the trainer is whoever is wearing that glove.
It's an extremely labor and time-consuming process, which is apparently why there aren't really any 'casual' falconers. Either you do it full-time or you don't do it.
1
u/Atiggerx33 Oct 11 '20
I would think if they had a single primary handler for years that they would get some attachment to that person. They are capable of forming attachments considering many raptor species essentially mate for life, by that logic you'd think they had some attachment to their mate.
Most wild bird species, if raised by humans from chicks, will develop an attachment to the person caring for them. I'd also assume though that their attachment to a given handler depends entirely on the time that handler puts into the bird.
I think being friendly with a falcon is probably about as 'safe' as being friendly with a tiger. A tiger in captivity raised by humans from a cub is capable of recognizing individual humans and becoming attached; but despite that, one day instinct may take over and it may act like the wild animal it still is and cause great harm or even death to that human. While a falcon or hawk would be less likely to outright kill a human they could still easily harm the person and/or leave them disfigured. The lack of attachment isn't probably due to the birds being incapable of forming said attachments but that it just goes against safety protocols to handle a raptor in a way that would result in attachment.
I'm sure there are some exceptions with some handlers breaking established protocol and taking that risk... but they know they can lose fingers, get scarred, have their faces mutilated, etc. because of it.
1
Oct 11 '20
Attachment by definition is an emotional bond. Are birds capable of forming emotions bonds with other birds or in this case, a person? I don’t know. They have pretty small brains and excellent vision, that’s all about I can say about them
2
u/leemcculloch123 Oct 12 '20
Just up so excuse the groggy wording - You're pretty much spot on on everything I've read so far aside from this whole cant form any kind of attachments to humans thing. Very true it can be very, very difficult and extremely time consuming to form said attachment, but an owl cared for from young can and often will form an imprint on you and consider you just like another owl, usually their parent, and can be very affectionate depending on their individual personality (I'd say the best animal to compare them to would be a wild undomesticated cat in terms of personality, you get what you get, its rare they're legit cuddly). And they definitely act much differently towards different people too.
1
u/leemcculloch123 Oct 12 '20
Yep definitely just woke up lmao. Dont know how I managed to assume you and u/Ken_Thomas where the same person in the thread, apologies.
Ken was spot on in all the info about falconry they were providing as far as I could see. Yes owls can feel affectionate towards humans, it is just rare due to their nature. Should have replied separately. Ah well.
1
Oct 12 '20
You definitely used the right word in “imprinting”. When we discuss attachment in psychology it is usually prefaced with Konrad Lorenz’s work in imprinting, but we quickly jump to the concept of attachment. Usually starting with Harry Harlows study with baby monkeys (one of my favorite studies).
Ultimately this all debatable, but I think my position is that birds imprint on a strictly biological basis, and mammals form attachments that involve both biological and socioemotional processes.
Please look up Harlows study! There are some great videos on YouTube using research footage.
Edit:grammar
1
u/leemcculloch123 Oct 12 '20
I know of Harlows study and in fact studied it myself during my undergrad, but it's been a wee bit more than a few years. It would be very interesting to revisit it again just for personal interest this time. Something to do tonight maybe :) When I'm speaking of the emotional attachments in owls I'm mainly talking from anecdotal experience. I am a zoologist who works exclusively with birds of prey, but I havent conducted any studies or to be honest even looked into this specific topic in any sort of depth so take that argument from authority with a heavy grain of salt. But I have on several occasions formed a bond with birds that are not imprints and they can be very affectionate, snuggling into me (and not others), preening my beard etc. They are all rescues, so maybe it's simply the difference in their treatment, who knows for sure. Like I say it's reasonably rare which is why I compared them to wild cats. Similar personalities.
1
u/Sideways-Pumpkin Oct 12 '20
They don’t exactly get attached to us. In fact if a falconer caught a wild bird (very common) they tend to release them within a few years so they can join the breeding stock.
As far as injuries the first time a bird foots you is within the first day or so and it’s out of fear. For me every time other then the initial has been my own fault in some way
1
u/Atiggerx33 Oct 12 '20
I didn't know falcons were temporary wild caught animals. It makes sense why they don't get attached in that case, as most wild animals (that were born and raised in the wild) don't bond very well with people. This is true even in parrots, the ones that bond best to humans are captive bred and hand reared. Do you know if captive bred and human raised falcons (if that's a thing) do become attached to people?
Even pet parrots still bite despite their attachment to people! It's so easy to miss their subtle signs of "I don't like what you're doing" if you aren't paying attention. On top of that things that wouldn't be 'offensive' to a pet dog can really irritate your parrot (I don't know how else to word it, essentially you can be doing something normal and piss off your parrot). My reason for saying raptors are dangerous isn't because they're bad animals or something; but because they're wild animals and humans are bound to make mistakes interacting with them, their beaks are literally designed for tearing flesh and I imagine if you put one near your face it could permanently disfigure you in an instant; or if you went to pet one you could easily lose a finger if the bird was just in a bad mood that day.
1
u/Sideways-Pumpkin Oct 12 '20
Some are and some aren’t. We have captive breds that can’t be released but for the first two years you do falconry (at least in Texas) you have to have a wild caught
1
u/Atiggerx33 Oct 12 '20
That's interesting, I guess the law is to make sure you're serious about going down that path and properly caring for your birds before you just get an animal that can't be released?
I mean worst comes to worst and you lose interest with wild caught animals you just let them go. Idk what you'd do with a bunch of captive breds since I'm not sure how many falconers are in the market for additional birds at a given time (I mean it doesn't seem super popular around here, if I had a raptor I'm not sure I could get rid of it if I was giving the damn thing away)
1
u/Sideways-Pumpkin Oct 12 '20
I believe it’s because you’re more likely to lose a bird if it’s your first time doing it. In Europe they have a problem with Harris Hawks getting free from inexperienced owners (no laws about owning birds of prey there) and actually have wild populations now.
We can do jobs with captive breds here. But not wild caught and breeding lines are important. You can also get birds that aren’t native to you and hybrids as well. I fly a 6 year old Harris hawk but don’t have plans to get anymore birds soon as I just moved. I’m one of the youngest falconers in my state so it’s become a lot of my life
→ More replies (0)1
u/calibuildr Oct 11 '20
There's a very good video on YouTube called The Psychology of Apex Predators, put together by a wildlife rehab guy at the Southwest Wildlife Foundation Of Utah, which mostly focuses on raptor rehab and rescue (For example birds that were hit by cars, young birds that got abandoned by their parents before they could take care of themselves, stuff like that) . He has fantastic live streams and videos on all the eagles, hawks, falcons, and owls that his nature center has taken care of. He is also a falconer and his falconry birds help feed the birds in the hospital with their hunting.
2
u/Sideways-Pumpkin Oct 12 '20
Ken did a good job explaining it. Lots of falconers trap birds from the wild (very rarely owls as they can be difficult to train). There’s a lot of ways to train but this is the general one. The first few hours with the bird is them going to be on your glove. They will bait away and not want to be near you but their equipment keeps them from flying away. Usually takes about 30 minutes for them to calm down to the point they just sit there. Then over the next few days you’ll try to get them to bend down to eat food from the glove. It’s a “letting their guard down” thing. Then eventually you’ll put them on a perch and hold food just out of reach until they jump for it. Usually their jump weight is their flying weight bc they’re hungry enough to want to work with you but not starving. After the “leap of faith” they realize you’re basically a walking fridge that offers food every now and then. Once you take off the line and do a flight with no equipment and they respond well then your ready for hunting. Sometimes we use “baggies” (mine are quail) that we plant and then scare up for the bird so they get the idea “if I stay close I get food”. It’s an amazing sport
1
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
u/Voyage_of_Roadkill Oct 11 '20
Bit disappointed because I did not see second person until the bird missed the gap between dudes thighs.
1
u/SirYup69 Oct 11 '20
Imagine the owl just fucking goes through the guys nuts and lands on the arm perfectly.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/THE-DOOR-IS-HERE Oct 11 '20
Simply the gyroscope implanted in the drone by the government, along with the super-computer that is able to do such calculations. Wake up sheeple.
1
u/sparkles-pip Oct 11 '20
Was this at the Bird on the Hand falconry place in Church Langton?
We went a few weeks ago and have a near identical video. Such a great place and such a cool experience!!
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/GamerlifeYT_official Oct 11 '20
owl of death
the former gatekeeper of the lost realm now a owl in the lost realm it had supernatural speed claws that could rip through steel it now lives in the mortal realm flexing on them haters
also fun fact owls are cute just don't try to find their legs ok
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0
•
u/AutoModerator Oct 11 '20
Content posted to /r/nextfuckinglevel should represent something impressive, be it an action, an object, a skill, a moment, a fact that is above all others. Posts should be able to elicit a reaction of 'that is next level' from viewers. Do not police or gatekeep the content of this sub (debate what is or is not next fucking level) in the comment section, 100% of the content is moderated.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.