Inspiration from a Snowy Owl

The pretty cool snowl owl are famous for being a bit magical. Harry Potter’s pet owl Hedwig proved over and over again that she was a bit better than the rest of the owls at the wizard’s school.

There are Paleolithic paintings in the Chauvet cave in France depicting owls alongside prehistoric lions and horses so we have always thought that owls are brilliant. The first painted owl might have been a horned owl but there are other examples of what might be the beautiful white bird.

Many animals adapt in different ways for the colder months. Snowy owls love winter and their white feathers on their feet look like fluffy slippers. The fluffy feets are perfect when you want to hunt on snowcovered and cold grounds. Males have lots of white feathers that protects them from the cold Arctic winds while the emales have darts of brown feathers. Many animals that live in a cold climate change dramatically, like the Artic Fox, but the snowy owls only get a little darker in spring and summer.

Like many animals the snow owls might need to change due the climate change. Less snow means that the stunning birds might stand out too much for the wrong reasons so perhaps they will develop darker plumage.

Snowy owls have special feathers that have fringes. This means that it is very difficult to hear them when they are hunting. They also have keen eyesight and great hearing, which help them to detect prey. The amazing owl’s wings have inspired inventions such as an effecient and quiet fan.

Snowy owls, like all animals have to work hard to survive, but animals also enjoy playing and relaxing. Love this video of a snowy owl enjoying a relaxing time on . One of my absolute favourite video 2020.

Snowy owls have yellow eyes and they prefer to hunt during the daytime. You can read more about the colours of owls’ eyes here. Fascinating!

Nature is an endless source of inspiration. Strategies, functions and design solutions developed for billions of years can be explored. Observering nature as well as collecting ideas and thoughts are a vital part of the biomimicry process. Inspired by Carla Sonheim we used watercolours to do some notetakings about snowy owls, see the featured pictured. We used the video below to help us draw a snowy owl.

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