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bioluminecent owls
Topic Started: Oct 5 2017, 06:34 PM (581 Views)
Scrublord
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So, I discovered this today:
https://www.owlpages.com/owls/articles.php?a=18

Apparently, there is a possibility that barn owls might be bioluminescent. This would be the first time bioluminescence has been discovered in any tetrapod. But is it true?
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Yiqi15
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This feels like a really convincing april fools' joke.
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Scrublord
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That's what I thought.
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Sayornis
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There are also accounts of luminous herons (specifically Night Herons and Great Blue Herons) from the 19th century. Supposedly they appear to have control over the light, and it dies out if the heron is killed. The book I linked speculates that the light comes from powder-down and that it's used to lure fish like the light of an anglerfish.

I find these claims hard to believe. One problem with the idea of bioluminescent birds is that feathers are dead tissue, and I don't think that could contain bioluminescence. Maybe if the bird produced a luminescent substance from its preen gland? Or if patches of skin glowed and the feathers were translucent enough to transmit the light? It's an interesting spec concept, but I don't think glowing owls or herons really exist. (Much as I'd like to see one for myself.)

Also, wouldn't glowing feathers be maladaptive for a nocturnal predator? And Barn Owls hunt mostly by means of directional hearing, so I'm not sure they'd need a built-in light source.

And that article dismisses the possibility of fungus or bacteria on the owls' feathers, claiming that terrestrial luminous bacteria don't exist, which is wrong.

So, I think the glowing owl/heron phenomenon is likely a combination of tall tales, misinterpretations of other phenomena (such as methane swamp lights), and maybe some odd cases of bacterial contamination.

Edit: I just remembered another claim of bird bioluminescence, the notion that the beak-edge nodules of hatchling Gouldian Finches are self-luminous. This claim shows up a lot online, but other sources claim that the nodules are just highly reflective. Can anyone who has seen baby Gouldian finches confirm or deny this?
Edited by Sayornis, Oct 5 2017, 11:47 PM.
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Chuditch
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Heh, bioluminescent owls. This reminds me of when I speculated (quite wildly) that the Min-min Lights (strange, silent, mobile lights that supposedly float around the Australian countryside) could just be bioluminescent owls. You know, because owls have silent flight and come out at night and stuff. I called it the Min-min Owl. I knew it was pretty much impossible but it was an interesting concept anyway.

EDIT: Just read the article and noticed it also mentioned that the barn owl could be the Min-min Lights. Probably not.
Edited by Chuditch, Oct 6 2017, 04:18 AM.
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Sayornis
Oct 5 2017, 11:28 PM
Can anyone who has seen baby Gouldian finches confirm or deny this?
Yes - the nodules on Gouldian finches mouths are reflective and appear to light up in a dark nest cavity when sunlight is entering inside (thus drawing the parents to their gape to feed them) but don't emit their own light.
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There have been many reports of glowing owls, and other glowing birds, so this is most certainly NOT an April Fool's joke.
A possible explanation is that they've gotten bioluminecent fungi or other micro-organisms on their feathers. While preening would be expected to remove such things, they could possibly accumulate if found on parts of the bird's body that are hard to reach.
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flashman63
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Oct 6 2017, 05:56 PM
There have been many reports of glowing owls, and other glowing birds, so this is most certainly NOT an April Fool's joke.
A possible explanation is that they've gotten bioluminecent fungi or other micro-organisms on their feathers. While preening would be expected to remove such things, they could possibly accumulate if found on parts of the bird's body that are hard to reach.
What makes birds uniquely placed to accumulate a lot of this fungi?
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flashman63
Oct 6 2017, 06:02 PM
What makes birds uniquely placed to accumulate a lot of this fungi?
It can grow on the wood of tree holes the birds inhabit. Alternatively, dampness on their feathers could encourage fungal growth, which could remain if found in spots hard to reach during preening.
Also, I probably should have noted this before but the glowing owl phenomenon seems to be more a case of phosphorescence than bioluminescence. Similar things in that both involve glowing, and thus easy to confuse with one another, but technically not the same thing.
Finally, while phosphorescent birds are more well known there are also a few rare cases of phosphorescent mammals (e.g. phosphorescent skunks) so if fungi and stuff is causing it, it does not seem birds are "uniquely placed" for it, though apparently they are more prone to it.
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Funny, as I was reading all this I remembered that the Northern Saw Whet has porphyrin in there feathers that glow pink under a UV light, with the levels being able to determine the age of the bird.

http://www.birdfellow.com/journal/2013/02/25/pretty_in_pink_the_northern_saw_whet_owl_s_flashy_secret

Not exactly related, but I thought it was neat to add.
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Well, this is certainly interesting. I'm in favour of the Bioluminescent fungus hypothesis, mainly because of it growing in trees where birds nest, as well as the fact that no known tetrapods can naturally produce their own light.

...Unless I can be proven wrong, which will probably happen. Truth be told, the concept of bioluminescent tetrapods has always been in the back of my mind.
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There's no way tetrapods have developed bioluminescence before because we never have evidence of this. This seems very false to me.
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Scrublord
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Keep in mind that many so-called bioluminescent fish aren't truly bioluminescent either. Flashlight fish use colonies of bacteria on either side of their heads to create their light.
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Scrublord
Oct 8 2017, 05:02 PM
Keep in mind that many so-called bioluminescent fish aren't truly bioluminescent either. Flashlight fish use colonies of bacteria on either side of their heads to create their light.
So true.
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peashyjah
Oct 8 2017, 04:53 PM
There's no way tetrapods have developed bioluminescence before because we never have evidence of this. This seems very false to me.
As has already been pointed out the owls could be getting their glow from fungi or microbes in their feathers, and the phenomenon is really not a case of bioluminescence at all, but a case of phosphorescene.
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