Owl (Short-Eared) Pueo

Not all owls construct lofty nests! Like the Hawaiian short-eared owl who prefers to nest on the ground. If predators venture too close to the nest and young, both the male and female will scream, hiss, and bark at the intruder while often faking a broken wing as a diversion.

 

Pueo the Protector: The Hawaiian owl is an ancestral spirit in Hawaiian culture and seen as a family protector. Hawaiian legends focus on one such tale, entitled “The Battle of the Owls,” a man robbed an owl’s nest of her eggs; after being haunted by the pueo, the man returned the owl’s eggs to the nest, and as an apology, he built a shrine to the bird. The ruling human chieftain saw the shrine as an act of defiance and sentenced the man to death. As he was about to die, the pueo gathered her fellow owls and flew to the human village; there were so many owls that the skies were darkened by their wings, and the chief revoked his decision and spared the man’s life.

Photographed in the wild, Saddle Rd, Big Island Hawaii

 

Saddle Rd runs across the island from Hilo to almost Kohala.

It was built as a cattle trail for the Parker Ranch, the 2nd biggest cattle ranch in the whole United States.