Welcome to the nursery!
Turning on the light, the situation inside became clear all at once.
Standing on the perch was a Eurasian eagle-owl, its body yellow-brown and so fat and round it resembled a ball.
Upon seeing someone enter, its ear tufts stood erect, it blinked, and with its yellow big eyes, it warily sized up the newcomer!
Fang Ye spoke softly, "Here, this is the eagle-owl we rescued."
"Wow, why is it so fat!"
Fang Ye laughed, "It's not fat, it's just squatting right now, and its feathers are quite fluffy, like a person wearing a thick down jacket and thick trousers in winter. It looks fatter visually, but actually, its body is very light."
Raccoons are truly fat when they balloon up, but owls are deceptively plump!
Taking a few steps forward, the eagle-owl suddenly leaned forward, its gaze intense, and took on the stance of a hen guarding against a hawk, its body swelling even more, inflating like a balloon!
Its body slowly swayed from side to side, Click! Click!
It kept tapping its beak, making a loud sound – the eagle-owl's way of cursing: Don't mess with me, I'm super fierce!
The fierce demeanor matched with the silly round eyes created an adorably comical contrast that stunned the netizens for a moment, and then made them laugh.
"Hahaha, it looks so silly!"
"The owl is displaying!"
"Important bird with a long bow!"
"I know this one, it's a pufferfish!"
"Grumbling and cursing."
"It really looks a bit like it's cursing! That's the exact expression my dad has when he scolds me, except he usually has a belt or something in his hand."
"This way of showing off is really interesting!"
After a while, seeing that Fang Ye made no moves, the eagle-owl gradually deflated, and its body greatly shrank in size.
Because it stood up during its display, once it deflated it didn't appear as rounded as before when it was squatting – it went from looking like a 300- to 400-pound fatty to a 150-pound healthy young man.
◉v◉
Its eyes, wide and blank, perfectly interpreted what it means to be as dazed as a wooden chicken!
If it weren't for the occasional slight turning of its head, an uninformed person might think it was a toy.
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"Suddenly it feels a bit Lovecraftian."
Fang Ye added, "Don't you find the owl's round facial disc quite fascinating? It looks like a radiating X around the eyes.
Their facial feathers form a radial pattern, which helps sound converge toward their asymmetric ears—one higher and one lower on either side of the head—to accurately judge the three-dimensional location of prey for a swift and effective strike."
"I've always found the shape of an owl's face quite peculiar, but I never really thought about why it looks like that."
"I see, I've learned something new! Watching the zookeeper's stream always teaches me new things."
"The zookeeper is really knowledgeable; it feels like he knows everything."
The audience marvelled in amazement.
"Xi Tian Juan Kan Shou Tian Mu" tipped 5 rice balls!
"Boss Du" tipped an airplane!
"Muse Meow Meow Meow" tipped 10 shrimp balls!
As he spoke, Fang Ye fed the Eurasian eagle-owl a few more pieces of meat.
Transformed into a relentless meat-eating machine, the eagle-owl bobbed its head and gulped down each piece voraciously.
"Still hungry, want more?"
Fang Ye chuckled and offered another piece of meat to the owl, but this time it smacked its beak and didn't grab it.
Apparently, it was really full; its bright eyes conveyed a sense of contentment and satisfaction from being well-fed.
"Alright, let's finish feeding the eagle-owl and leave it be; it's best for it to enjoy some peace on its own without prolonged human interaction. After all, this is a wild bird that will eventually return to the wild. It wouldn't be good for it to get too comfortable around humans."
Turning off the lights and closing the door, although the audience still felt a bit unsatisfied and had not had enough, they understood.
"So cute! Why would anyone dislike owls?"
"Exactly, they're both cool and cute."
Fang Ye pondered for a moment: "Actually, the Eurasian eagle-owl is quite in line with our human aesthetic. It looks very handsome. Then there's the snowy owl—Harry Potter's 'Hedwig' is a snowy owl, with beautiful snow-white feathers, truly one of the most visually appealing in the owl kingdom.
But not all owls look like this!
Take the grass owls, like the grass owl and barn owl. They don't have tufts on their heads and have a heart-shaped face, which is fluffy like a monkey, and they have eagle-like bodies and talons, so they are also known as 'monkey-faced eagles'.
With their pale yellow face and a pair of pitch-black eyes, they look like a ghastly face from the side. When they fly, they do so silently like ghosts, and when hunting, they emit a sharp scream to terrify their prey, capturing it in a state of fear.
Imagine, late at night, you hear a piercing scream. Feeling uneasy, you walk to the window, and suddenly you see a skull-like head flash by. How scary would that be?"
"Damn, that is a bit scary!"