Photo by Faruk Kizil
Habichtskauz auch Uralkauz
Das Bild entstand an einer Futterstelle beim Falkner in den Niederlande.
Ural owl (Strix uralensis)
The picture was taken at a feeding place of a falconer in Netherlands.
One of the given translations called this Habich’s Owl, so I tried to find out who Habich was. Took me way too long to figure out Habich was not a person, it means goshawk in German. The German wiki entry had a lot of info the US one didn’t though.
The species is referred to as Slaguggla, or “attacking owl”, in Swedish, Habichtskauz, or “goshawk-owl”, in German or as the “long-tailed owl” in Russian.
Attempts to re-introduce the owl have been partly successful in the German-Austrian-Czech border region (Bavarian Forest , Bohemian Forest , and Šumava), and most recently in the Vienna Woods.
Austria seems to have a difficult time with the project as people keep shooting them. 🙄
Animal sound words can be so funny. I imagine our native ones all make sense to us, as it’s what we learned growing up, but hearing some in other languages seem bewildering. Even after listening to the kauz pronunciationg (surprise T sound in there would have tricked me!) I don’t know how that relates to an owl.
I was familiar with the Little Owl being the Owl of Athena and on the old coin, but I forgot it was on the new one. I like how they keep the ancient design still. That feels like a nice tradition.
You’ve helped me understand a lot of new things. It’s been much fun!