snowy owl and raven, a conversation between two birds on a golfcourse

Naturalist Bernd Heinrich, author of ’The Mind of the Raven“, was nice enough to provide this description Hi John, The first thing to notice is that the owl is TOTALLY unimpressed. It’s not scared in the least, and the raven has no aggrssive intentions, but starts out being just curious- like: “what the hell is This!“ So it tests - tries to get a reaction. But the owl still stays totally nonchalent. At some point the raven then tries a different tactic- it puts on its “I’m a big guy“ display of erect “ear“ feathers- usually used to show status in the presence of potential superiors, but here used also with a bowing and wing-flaring,which is used in supplication if there is NOT going to be a challenge- so, yes, i think the raven was having fun, and then also starting to have some respect, because this big white thing was NOT going to cooperate and be its toy. Bernd