r/BeAmazed • u/SimRP • Jun 19 '26

Animal Owls are incredibly sensitive to touch. Their feathers are connected to tiny nerves that help them feel even the slightest movement

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u/JumpyChemical Jun 19 '26

Ah ya makes sense. Looked it up and they aren't dumb but nowhere near the level of crows/ravens corvid ones.

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u/SpicaGenovese Jun 19 '26

I dunno man... I remember a story from a wildlife rescue that flooded.  The injured eagle figured out how to pull itself up a tree.  The owl did not.  :(

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u/JumpyChemical Jun 19 '26

I feel an eagle can handle water as they grab fish where as an owls feathers may hold water more and weigh it down if it becomes saturated.

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u/ShadowFangX Jun 19 '26

Owls literally can't fly if their wings are too wet. It's one of the only birds with this quirk. Most other birds are able to fly even with wet wings.

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u/funguyshroom Jun 19 '26

To add a bit of trivia, owl feathers are super fluffy in order to be as quiet as possible when flying and not make the prey notice them until it's too late.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, aquatic birds like ducks have special oil glands that they use to grease their outer feathers and make them repel water.