From The Raptor Center
Glimpse into the Glow.
When we recently admitted a young great horned owl, we broke out the black light to take a quick look at its feathers under ultra violet (UV) ight. Why? The pink glow can help us confirm the ow’s age. We know this is a bird in its first year of life because all of its wing flight feathers are glowing pink. The glow comes from proteins in new feathers called porphyrins. Under UV light, these porphyrins are fluorescent and visible to the human eye.
As feathers age, these pigments break down and the pink color subsides. The only time all of the feathers are new is when a bird gets its very first set of feathers. As these birds age, they only molt a few flight feathers each year, leading to uneven amounts of pink in older birds.
While we know that owls don’t have UV-sensitive cone cells in their eyes like diurnal birds, research shows that they can still detect UV light. There is no definitive answer as to the purpose behind the fluorescence of new feathers; however, it possibly conveys important information between owls in the wild.
It’s worth noting that the majority of animals can see in the ultraviolet light spectrum, meaning humans inability to do so is an exception and not the standard. How do you think UV vision would change the way we see our world?
Link has a video if you want to see more feathers glowing, but there’s no talking or text beyond what’s above here.
This is an amazing write up. Thank you for linking to it. I’m so glad I found this community, I honestly never subscribe before because I thought this was about football.
I’m going to read your other post right now
I used to have a friend who had parrots, and occasionally, and I don’t understand why, they’d lose all their feathers, maybe something to do with being in captivity or stress
I’m glad you finally found us! That is a drawback to the name, especially to non-sports people.
Birds will pull out feathers due to stress. They may be bored or lonely or have a nutritional issue or illness. The repeated pulling of healthy feathers can cause damage to the follicles.
Here’s an article discussing some causes and treatments in pet birds.
I hope you enjoy the back catalog of posts. There’s hundreds of great photos and lots of facts. If you search “Owl-natomy” you’ll get most of my unique anatomy discussions.
If there’s anything you want me to post about, just let me know. I try to respond to everyone and answer whatever questions you give me. I’m not an expert, just a fan of owls and researching things that interest me.
Here’s the year end review I did for 2023, highlighting some of the best posts from last year. That can be a good starting place for you if you want to catch up on things.