The better to see you with- motion parallax in young owls
May 26, 2022 If you spend some time watching any young owls, you will probably notice them bobbing their heads around, moving side-to-side, or even turning their heads completely sideways. Are they just being silly, or cute? Dancing? Nope, they’re just figuring out how to fine-tune their sophisticated vision and hearing abilities! Check out ORI’s Great Horned Owl live cam to see the two young owls as they start their first explorations out of the nest In this video (below), t
The Snowy Owl Scientist: New book follows Denver Holt on a field season in Alaska
May 16, 2022 The Snowy Owl Scientist In 2019, wildlife photojournalist Mark Wilson made the trek up to northern Alaska to learn first-hand about ORI's Snowy Owl Breeding Ecology and Lemming Population Study, which was started by Denver Holt in 1992. This research is the longest-running Snowy Owl project in the world. The result is this beautifully photographed book, which was released on April 19, 2022 by Clarion Books, an imprint of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books (like many
Whooo is in there? Peeper cam lets us see what’s happening in owl cavities
May 12, 2022 ORI uses a cavity inspection camera, aka “peeper cam,” for our studies on cavity-nesting owls, most importantly Northern Pygmy Owls. We also use the “peeper” to study Northern Saw-whet Owls, Western Screech-owls, Barred Owls, and Boreal Owls. The camera allows us to look inside of small cavities to see if there are any signs of owls nesting in them. The camera head is attached to a 50’ extension pole, which allows us to investigate cavities that are pretty high u
Welcome to Solai Le Fay, ORI's 2022 intern!
May 5, 2022 Big welcome to ORI's 2022 seasonal intern, Solai Le Fay! She started with us at the beginning of March and has hit the ground running! She works closely with Denver, Beth, Chloe, Steve, and our other volunteers out in the field on all of ORI's long-term research projects. So far this season she's been out in the cold early spring nights listening for Great Gray Owls deep in the woods, searching for (and finding!) Great Gray Owl nests, traversing grasslands searchi
ORI hosts writer Jennifer Ackerman for a week in the field
May 4, 2022 ORI was thrilled to host award-winning and New York Times bestselling science writer Jennifer Ackerman for a week in late April. She is the author of numerous books, including most recently The Bird Way (2020) and The Genius of Birds (2016). (Both are excellent reads, and are highly recommended by all of us here at ORI!) She spent her time with us here in Montana out in the field, heading out every day with the field crew and learning about the owls we study and t
