Bird Lug Holes (ears) :)

[samwiseg]

Has anyone ever seen bird ears before?

I always knew they were just holes but I didn't really know quite what to expect on how they would actually look. However, I was able to take a photo the other day when the boys where taking their basil shower

I am probably being silly and you have all seen them before but I just thought I'd share it with you!

Here's Barney modelling his ear





Ewww!

[OP]

Wow, I didn't knw just where the lug hole was. The one marked as earhole looks suspiciously like an eye. The one marked as ear, well I can't see anything, even with the magnifying glass.

[jellybean]

Well, thanks for sharing samwiseg, because I didn't know what a budgies ear looked like either 🤔

[ffiscool]

thats amazing.. thank you for sharing

[Marianne Marlow]

I've seen them, but thank you samwiseg
..and Barney for modelling his ear!

[bud9]

Great picture and thank you as i have never seen a bud's ear hole.

[samwiseg]

I just find this sort of thing fascinating!

I dont know if it is the same in all birds but I know Barn Owls have ears where are one is lower than the other?!

Wierd but wonderful eh?

[Hezz]

Their ears a fairly easy to see when the bird is wet ..... you also need to know where the ear is when you give a head scratch. Spyro gives a little jump if I get his! I can scratch the rest of his head quite vigorously, but go gently around his ear(s).

[milliej]

Well I never! I knew they had ears of course, and their hearing is excellent but to see one like that, amazing, thanks Sam.

[samwiseg]

Pretty cool huh?

[stevex]

Great picture. Whenever my two are having a squabble, I sometimes say to them that I'll give them a clip round the ear.....when I can find them!

Seriously though, you can get a rough idea where they are when you look closely at how their feathers lie in that area.

[weelouie]

I saw the term "lug hole" and was instantly taken back to my childhood. My Scottish father used to threaten us kids "I'll belt ye 'round the lug'ole!!"

Usually you can see bird ears when the feathers are wet or when they're chicks that haven't fledged yet. They look exactly like the "lug'oles" on my crested geckos and other reptiles.

Here's an interesting fact about bird hearing. Some species of bird use their feet to hear. They are the ones that hunt food underground or in tree trunks. In North America the American Robin uses its feet along with its ears to detect the vibration of worms and grubs moving underground. Some woodpeckers use their feet to detect insects under tree bark.  The Hairy Woodpecker also has hairlike feathers growing from the root of its beak. It uses those to detect prey vibrations as the bird pecks at the bark.    

[weelouie]

Dec 13, 2016 17:01:43 GMT samwiseg said:

I just find this sort of thing fascinating!

I dont know if it is the same in all birds but I know Barn Owls have ears where are one is lower than the other?!

Wierd but wonderful eh?

I recently watched a really good documentary about the "super powered" owl. They filmed a barn owl that was adopted as a young chick by a woman, who trained the owl to fly on command like a trained falcon. Here's a link to a YouTube excerpt that shows how they can fly silently and at an extremely slow speed compared to other birds. They fly so slowly to help them detect their prey.