Most owls are wise because they hunt at night when there are few predators about.  However in South America the Burrowing Owl hunts during the day and the smart trick that this owl does is to nest underground in disused rodent burrows. When they have young, one parent goes off hunting for insects, lizards and mice, whilst the other stays close to the youngsters.

We watched this adult Owl for some time and saw where the entrance to its underground nest was.  We waited for the adult to fly off and cautiously placed a Go-Pro mini-camera close to the hole entrance and eventually out came a chick.

The Owl spent some time looking at the camera, walked around it, even stared up into the sky, clearly this was a puzzled Owl.  The bird disappeared down the hole and returned a few minutes later.

 

 

 

Now there were two puzzled owl chicks and this time with big brother as protection, the younger of the two decided it was time for the odd Kung-Fu kick.

 

 

All to no avail and after a while they also returned down their hole and we could hear some noises from underground.

 

and out they came together with mum, now there were three puzzled Owls, more astonished looks, much staring into the sky, maybe owls aren’t that smart after all.