Displeased Owl

Displeased Owl

 

Owls are one of my favourite birds, though I learned that the locals in Madagascar might not be of the same opinion. The Malagasy people (= people from Madagascar) believe that owls are witches’ companions, and they join them to dance on the graves of the dead at night. This rather displeased looking Madagascar Scops Owl was photographed in the dry forest of Kirindy, on the western side of the island. They are obviously superbly well camouflaged but the local guides really have a knack for finding them. Like most other creatures on the island, this owl is endemic.

While I have mentioned that this is a Madagascar Scops Owl, before 2007 it was called Torotoroka Scops owl. But it would seem that this is not considered to be separate species anymore, and since 2007 the Madagascar & Torotoroka Scops Owls have been lumped into one species.

Photographing against the sky is always a bit tricky, so I chose a high key approach here where I overexposed to bring out the details of the owl and blowing out the sky to almost pure white – I tend to like this effect a lot.   I could have used a flash but the owl looked kind of annoyed so it felt very intrusive to flash it.

Techs:  Canon 7D | Canon 300mm 2.8 L IS II | f4 | 1/250 | ISO 200