Today’s post is from the Owl Research Institute.

Did you know you can tell the sex of an adult Long- eared Owl by color?

Though it may be subtle to the untrained eye, Long- eared Owls display sexual color dimorphism in their plumage. The Owl Research Institute tested this using a soil color chart to score the facial disk, tarsometatarsus, and underwing coverts of adult Long- eared Owls. Overall, females were found to be darker in color than males.

Photos 3-6 show adult male and female Long-eared Owls side-by-side. Can you guess which are which? Comment your guesses below!

Read more about sexual color dimorphism in Long- eared Owls in ORI’s 2016 publication titled ‘Sex Differences in Long-eared Owi Plumage Coloration’.

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
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      11 months ago

      Thanks for saving me the work!

      I was going to have Male and Female as the key and try to leave Peter’s outfit, but you did a great job!

      It’s not showing up in my app (Summit) so I’m just going to repost it here for anyone else with the save problem. It showed up on the web version just fine.