Posted on 03/25/2025 9:14:20 PM PDT by Red Badger
The cause of this unusual color might never be fully understood.
Image courtesy of Julie Maggert
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Birders in Michigan are scratching their heads over unusual photos of a snowy owl. The animal is perfectly perched on a telegraph pole, but instead of snow white and black feathers, the owl's feathers are colored orange.
Spotted in Huron County, the bird was photographed by amateur wildlife photographer Julie Maggert. Since sharing the images on social media, theories have been rife about what could have caused the bird's feathers to become orange.
One theory suggested that the owl had become covered in plane de-icer from nearby Huron County Memorial Airport. “The most likely explanation is that it was de-icing fluid at an airport, since some formulations are that red-orange color,” said Dr Scott Weidensaul, a co-founder of snowy owl research organization Project SNOWstorm, told the New York Times.
Birds can become covered in dye or paint, either accidentally or by human means; sometimes they can even change color due to curry.
However, others were skeptical of this idea and suggested the feathers were the result of a genetic mutation. Genetic mutations can play weird tricks on all kinds of animals, turning feathers and skin white, black, or even yellow.
“Something environmentally turned on the pheomelanin pigment synthesis pathway to make this bird over-express this rufous, chestnutty color,” Professor Kevin McGraw told Michigan Live. McGraw suggested that the bird's mother could have been exposed to a chemical that was then passed down to her chick, causing the coloration difference. “Through toxins, pollutants, other types of environmental stressors, including pesticides, heavy metal contaminants, or oxidative damage. Those are several things that come to mind with this bird,” he said.
Female and male snowy owls look quite different, but neither typically sport orange feathers. Image Credit: FotoRequest/Shutterstock
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Male snowy owls are almost completely white, while female owls have dark bars across their feathers. It's unlikely that the true cause of this owl's mystery feathers will ever be known.
According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, they have been aware of the bird since the middle of January. “The department has no plans to try to capture it for any reason,” Karen Cleveland, a wildlife biologist for the department, told the New York Times, “so we’re unlikely to ever have a conclusive explanation for this coloring.”
Orange Owl bad!
It’s a sign!.......................
Must have been a flamingo in the woodpile.
Prematurely applied Buffalo Hot Wings Sauce?
Red tailed hawk next door playing milkman.
Posting of the Day Award!
Regards,
That looks natural, not like something spilled on it.
When I’m king, people who wrote headlines like that will be publicly flogged
Don’t get your feathers ruffled..................
Good to know they have cutting edge communications, up there in Michigan. We can tell them about climate change, and then they’ll blame it for turning their owls orange.
Now that humans have arrived at the age of:
-photo-shop;
-computer generated images;
-Artificial Intelligence;
-etc., etc., etc.
It has become difficult to determine
what is real and was is not real.
Either that or it's father was a ring-necked pheasant.
Waiting for the Garry Larson cartoon. “Heck of a birthmark you got there Hal.”
Regardless - it is normally a beautiful bird, and even more interesting now. I hope that it survives without its usual camouflage.
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