From Paulette Donnellon
Last night, I saw something so extraordinarily rare that I honestly felt like I discovered a unicorn in the wild. Officially my ultimate four leaf clover I was out photographing Burrowing owls, expecting the usual (and always adorable) bright, piercing yellow eyes. Instead, I locked eyes with this beautiful creature… who has striking, icy WHITE eyes.
To put this into perspective, standard Burrowing owls always have yellow eyes. Finding one with white eyes is a true genetic anomaly, literally one-in-a-million odds. It’s a needle-in-a-haystack event that most birders and wildlife biologists will go their entire lives without ever seeing.
I even Googled “Burrowing Owl with white eyes” when I got home, and absolutely nothing comes up in images. That is how insanely rare this is! Because this is such a major anomaly, I have already shared the sighting and location details with the local wildlife biologist. The best part? This incredible little owl is perfectly healthy, completely alert, has a mate and is doing wonderfully out there.
As if the moment wasn’t magical enough, it was more than happy to just sit and pose for me while I clicked away. I am truly grateful for its patience, and seeing this incredible anomaly.
This is my favorite, really shows the difference from the usual yellow!
It’s a pretty striking difference!
I wonder what caused it. Many raptors that have eyes that change color as they grow up in the first few months of life. This bird doesn’t have any other obvious color differences, so it having some issue with melanin production doesn’t sound likely.
Burrowing owls seem to not be new to unique eye variations though, as we’ve talked a few times about Florida’s owls with “galaxy eyes.”
I missed the galaxy eyes post! Really interesting. Thank you as always for sharing.
I do throw a lot of owl lore at you guys!
Not the same type of owl or the same condition at all, but if you haven’t seen the late, great Zeus’s legendary eyes, they are a must-see also.