These are young owls from an artificial nestbox, taken out to be ringed. Boreal/Tengmalms owls do not attack People Close to their nest or chicks. Larger owls may do so.
Roar Solheim I see, I thought this species would have been more defensive over its young (Tawny Owls are not much larger and very defensive of their territory/nests, for instance). And I thought they were called "owlets," not chicks. Anyway, I have seen strange behaviour by this species before when handled by humans. Go watch this video where a Boreal Owl starts singing while being handled by a ringer: watch?v=jwneJOc48GQ
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Where did you find these owls? How did you get so close without being attacked by the parents?
These are young owls from an artificial nestbox, taken out to be ringed. Boreal/Tengmalms owls do not attack People Close to their nest or chicks. Larger owls may do so.
Roar Solheim I see, I thought this species would have been more defensive over its young (Tawny Owls are not much larger and very defensive of their territory/nests, for instance). And I thought they were called "owlets," not chicks.
Anyway, I have seen strange behaviour by this species before when handled by humans. Go watch this video where a Boreal Owl starts singing while being handled by a ringer:
watch?v=jwneJOc48GQ