this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024

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Ural Owl (lemmy.world)

submitted 2 months ago by anon6789@lemmy.world to c/superbowl@lemmy.world

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Photo by Faruk Kizil

Habichtskauz auch Uralkauz

Das Bild entstand an einer Futterstelle beim Falkner in den Niederlande.

Ural owl (Strix uralensis)

The picture was taken at a feeding place of a falconer in Netherlands.

One of the given translations called this Habich's Owl, so I tried to find out who Habich was. Took me way too long to figure out Habich was not a person, it means goshawk in German. The German wiki entry had a lot of info the US one didn't though.

The species is referred to as Slaguggla, or “attacking owl”, in Swedish, Habichtskauz, or “goshawk-owl”, in German or as the “long-tailed owl” in Russian.

Attempts to re-introduce the owl have been partly successful in the German-Austrian-Czech border region (Bavarian Forest , Bohemian Forest , and Šumava), and most recently in the Vienna Woods.

Austria seems to have a difficult time with the project as people keep shooting them. 🙄

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[–] JetpackJackson 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Idk why you'd want to shoot an owl with such a pretty face :( I mean I know why, people want feathers or meat or do taxidermy but like hypothetically :(

Also, I like hearing about the entomology of the names! I'm learning German so now I have a new word under my belt :)

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

On the Austrian side, the action was temporarily suspended due to the illegal shooting of released owls and ongoing protests by hunters who feared a negative impact on small game hunting. A specific animal protection project of the Association for Landscape Conservation & Species Protection in Bavaria eV, founded in 2015, was the reintroduction of the Ural owl in the Steinwald Nature Park in Upper Palatinate.

German Wiki

I'd argue the restoration of natural populations of native animals is more important than sports entertainment. The killing of the owls sounds to mainly be a protest of sorts.

[–] JetpackJackson 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I'm fine with people hunting for food or sport but only if they don't waste the food and they don't over hunt or kill protected/rare species. Shooting the owls to protect small game is messed up.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I hunt whitetail deer once a year and even that much meat is barely worth the effort.

Most hunters I've met are decent people who care about animals and the environment, but then you have some real oddballs at the other end of the spectrum. I don't know if those types have respect for much of anything, themselves included. I don't know all the small mammals available in Austria, but if they're much like squirrels or rabbits in NA, they aren't all that exciting and tasty to be violating federal laws over.

The owls didn't leave or die off because they've lost their role, they've been eliminated by this same type of thoughtlessness. You will have a better overall environment, including for hunting, if you take care of your ecosystem, mainly by leaving it the heck alone.

[–] JetpackJackson 3 points 2 months ago

Ah gotcha. That makes sense.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's a face that knows things.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

It'd make a great spirit animal.

[–] alleycat@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The german language has two words for "owl": "Eule" and "Kauz". I'm a native speaker, but I had to look up what the difference is (Wikipedia/Deepl):

"Eule" means "owl".

"Kauz" also means owl, but specifically the small, fat and grumpy looking kind:

Various bird genera and species from the family of true owls (Strigidae) are referred to as [Kauz]. The differentiation between the terms "Eule" and "Kauz" is a peculiarity of the German language and has no equivalent in terms of zoological systematics. [Eule] are generally rather elongated, slender bird species, whereas [Kauz] have a stocky, large-headed shape

[Eule] are considered thoughtful and wise, whereas [Kauz] are considered clumsy, eccentric and reclusive.

That's literally it, it has nothing to do with biology. So the correct translation would be "grumpy-looking goshawk owl". 😉

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wow, this is beautiful!

I'd heard eule before, but not kauz.

English only has one word, French has chouette and hibou, and Spanish has a lot of words, the main ones being buho (seems most common, and more specifically larger, horned owls), lechuza (barn owls), and the Mexican word tecolote (screech owl or possible pygmy owls, so seems more for small owls rather than horn/no horn). There's a few more words I've seen, but most comments seemed to say if you use anything other than buho or lechuza, no one will know what you're talking about.

The list of German owls does seem to split between eule and kauz right around the middle. I feel it's a pretty good system!

Barn owl (Schleiereule), Tyto alba
Eurasian scops-owl (Zwergohreule), Otus scops
Eurasian eagle-owl (Uhu), Bubo bubo
Snowy owl (Schnee-Eule), Bubo scandiacus
Northern hawk owl (Sperbereule), Surnia ulula
Eurasian pygmy-owl (Sperlingskauz), Glaucidium passerinum
Little owl (Steinkauz), Athene noctua
Tawny owl (Waldkauz), Strix aluco
Ural owl (Habichtskauz), Strix uralensis
Long-eared owl (Waldohreule), Asio otus
Short-eared owl (Sumpfohreule), Asio flammeus
Boreal owl (Raufußkauz), Aegolius funereus

[–] Successful_Try543 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

As you were wondering about the translations: Schleiereule - "Veil Owl"
Zwergohreule - "Dwarf Ear Owl"
Schnee-Eule - "Snow Owl"
Sperber-Eule - "Sparrowhawk Owl"
Sperlingskauz - "Sparrow Owl"
Steinkauz - "Stone Owl"
Waldkauz - "Forest Owl"
Habichtskauz - "Goshawk Owl"
Waldohreule - "Forest Ear Owl"
Sumpfohreule - "Swamp Ear Owl"
Rauhfußkauz - "Scraggly Foot Owl"

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Thank you so much! It's so interesting to see the other names people have come up with for the same things.

Ones I like better: Zwergohreule Sperber-Euhle Both of these I think describe them better than the English names.

Ones I don't get: Habichtskauz - I did not think it looked like the Goshawk. The Sperber-Euhle I liked because it looked more like a Sparrowhawk than the Red-Tailed Hawk, which is the default hawk for my brain.
Rauhfußkauz - The legs/feet look pretty typical to me.

Not sure if I like Steinkauz better than Little Owl. Little Owl sounds cute, but is hard to tell Little Owl vs a little owl, while stone owl is appropriate for size, but does not reflect they are cute, unless Germans have particularly cute rocks over there. 😄

[–] Successful_Try543 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

According to German Wikipedia, the Rauhfußkauz has its name from its feathered feet. But it isn't the only one, as e.g. the Snowy Owl also has this feature.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

I would have named him over that big round head. Trying to look up any direct translation to German for "big-headed" all seem to translate to mean arrogant rather than a physical feature. The closest I found is another bird, Brauenbreitschnabel, which says it means "Broad Headed Beak" but I don't think that looks to have a particularly large head, so I don't know if that is correct either.

[–] Successful_Try543 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

He German Wikipedia of the Habichtskauz says:

The colouring of the underwings and tail bears a certain resemblance to that of young Eurasian Goshawks (Accipiter gentilis), a fact that is reflected in the German trivial name.

Young Eurasian Goshawks

The name Steinkauz refers to the location they use for breeding, which are, beside tree hollows, barns, chapells and wine cellars built of stone.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That was my guess about Habichtskauz, but to me the standout feature of this particular owl is the face. From skimming the German wiki for it, even though it looks gentle, it seems very territorial and aggressive, so that may also factor into the hawk similarities, but I don't have either bird where I am to make much comparrison.

Steinkauz makes better sense now, being named after where it is living. Reminds me of the Rock Eagle Owl.

Thank you for all your insights today! I have really learned a lot from all this!

[–] Successful_Try543 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Or the Barn Owl which commonly is found in barns.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I like Barn Owl a little less, along the line of the joke that always comes up of "what did they call them before barns were invented." Plus Barn Owls are basically everywhere, not just relegated to places there are barns. Veiled Owl works in every occasion, though when I ran the translate feature on the German wiki for the Ural Owl, it seemed to translate the word it had for facial disc, so maybe that is a word that refers to too many owls in German. (Just checked, Gesichtsschleier is the word it was translating to "facial veil")

Looking at the list again, it's interesting Barn Owl is an euhle as it has a round head. Many other languages also seem to separate out the barn owl types. That seems to lend support to the "personality traits" explaination of the euhle/kauz differences.

[–] Successful_Try543 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

See it the other way around: A barn isn't a proper barn without accommodating a Barn Owl.
However, in German, some birds are called by their current habitat: Feldlerche (Eurasian Skylark), Feldsperling (Eurasian Tree Sparrow), Haussperling (House Sparrow), Hausrotschwanz (Black Redstart), Gartenrotschwanz (Common Redstart), ... Yet, one may ask: Where did they live before there were fields, houses, and gardens?

Linguistic separation of the Barn Owls from the True Owls makes somewhat sense as they are the two separate families of the owls.

In the German Wikipedia article on owls Strigiformes I also found an explanation of the origin of the two terms Eule and Kauz:

The two German terms have developed onomatopoeically from the calls of owls. "Eule" refers to the hooting calls, while "Kauz" is a paraphrase of the short and distinctive calls.

Interestingly, the Eulen you are not supposed to carry to Athens (Eulen nach Athen tragen means doing something useless), are originally Steinkäuze (Athene Noctua) that were a symbol of the godess Athene and were depicted on the reverse side of the old Drachme coins from Athens.

Drachme from Athens 454 to 404 B.C.

Today, this Drachme coin is depicted on the reverse side of the Greek 1 Euro coin:

Geek 1 Euro

Thank you for the nice conversation.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago

Animal sound words can be so funny. I imagine our native ones all make sense to us, as it's what we learned growing up, but hearing some in other languages seem bewildering. Even after listening to the kauz pronunciationg (surprise T sound in there would have tricked me!) I don't know how that relates to an owl.

I was familiar with the Little Owl being the Owl of Athena and on the old coin, but I forgot it was on the new one. I like how they keep the ancient design still. That feels like a nice tradition.

You've helped me understand a lot of new things. It's been much fun!

[–] pseudo@jlai.lu 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This photo is giving me the feeling that wings are just big hands flapping it the air.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

There are definite similarities.

[–] pseudo@jlai.lu 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's not what I see. I see a hand with no arm directly attached to the body my some sort of wrist-elbow-thingy. The feathers are the fingers.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Ah, understood.

Like "jazz hands" but without the arm part getting in the middle.

[–] pseudo@jlai.lu 2 points 2 months ago

[–] HootinNHollerin@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

‘WHAT UP’