This one is similar to Short Eared Owls, which are found in a lot of places, so you may be more familiar with them. There are so many great owls out there, but I'll share them all with you eventually!
I was just searching to see why Pratchett chose that as the name of his city, but everything I came across said he wasn't familiar with the bird at the time, and it was retconned into the crest later. Very interesting.
You guys keep making me feel guilty I've still actually gotten around to reading any Discworld. It will work someday, I swear! I have Guards, Guards on my tablet ready to go, and I watched the Hogfather movie and loved it.
They will tend to scrunch and elongate when they're trying to hide. Since their eyes are pretty big, closing them most of the way makes that feature stand out less.
They go big when they're standing their ground. They've already been spotted, so now they want to look like the biggest, toughest owl possible.
Here's the classic White Faced Scops video showing the little owl's reactions to an owl slightly larger than itself and one much larger.
Birds usually don't want to fight. There's too much chance for anyone involved to get hurt and be left unable to fly and be unable to get food or stay safe. They want to either stay hidden or have the other party back off before anyone actually gets too physical.
I wouldn't say there are a ton of famous owls in media, but the ones that are there all feel pretty memorable from their visual impact and they tend to be great helpers to our heroes.
The bay owls have what I feel is the most unnerving look, but they are pretty tiny, so that takes away some of their visual power if you have a sense of scale. 😁
Here is one with its typical expression, and also the scrunchy face like the owl in the main post.
Yes, indeed. White Faced Scops does not have sole rights to metowlmorphosis. With muscular control over their feathers, they can shrink or swell tremendous amount.
This one is taking it the other direction:
This is the same species of owl, just the American coloration instead of the European.
This one has the otherworldly character of a bay owl, but softened with some extra fuzziness to take some of the alien look away. It should be a bit larger as well. Little owls are very cute, but I want all the owl I can get for my money!
That French taco doesn't sound too bad. Sounds like a crunchy kebab.
I've made Canadian style donair with the traditional garlic sauce fries, and this reminds me somewhat of both of those, only put together.