Watch an owl try to eat a turtle whole

Forget a weekend Netflix binge-watching session. The Cornell Bird Cams have some of the best reality programming around, with important science and conservation knowledge about our feathered friends from around the world.

Owl attempts to eat a turtle

Owls have a unique way of eating. They eat and digest what they can from their prey and then regurgitate pellets that look a bit like the lint from a clothes dryer. These owl pellets usually contain bones, beaks, and other indigestible organic material.

The Wild Birds Unlimited Barred Owl Cam caught a male barred owl delivering a very interesting treat to his female nest mate. On April 20, he dropped off a juvenile turtle as an afternoon snack. She has an (understandably) difficult time swallowing the shelled reptile and does not even try to feed it to her chicks. Barred owls eat a wide variety of reptiles and amphibians, but this is the first time the team has ever seen a turtle delivered to the nest in over 12 years.

White-faced heron wiggles its neck in New Zealand

Some birds can be really big hams, including a white-faced heron in New Zealand. While we can’t know the full intentions behind it, the large bird wobbles its neck side-to-side to side right in front of the RoyalCam on the southeast tip of New Zealand’s South Island. Herons use their flexible dinosaur-like necks to strike prey from a distance.

Baby owl head-bobbing (no music required)

Maybe this owl somehow picked up the ear worm “Baby Shark”? A barred owl owlet was seen bopping its head back and froth, all while looking up at the Barred Owl Cam. This head-bobbing is a common behavior for owls. They have forward-facing eyes, which are fixed in one spot and can’t move around. In order to zero in on the position and distance of a target, they bob their heads to take in their surroundings better.

American kestrel lays an Easter surprise

Spring is often nesting season for birds and the Easter holiday weekend had a surprise in store for one American kestrel in Wisconsin. She laid her fifth and likely final egg of the season on April 19. By April 21, she returned from an incubation break and the five speckled eggs came into view of the camera.

The American kestrel cam is a collaboration between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Raptor Resource Project. The young birds typically hatch after roughly one month of incubation. Over three to four weeks, they will lose those downy feathers and become a bit more sleek. After fledging, the parents will continue to take care of them and they will remain close to the nest as they learn two very important survival skills: flight and hunting.

The osprey nest defense system

Don’t mess with ospreys. These master anglers nicknamed “sea hawks” will fight back. In this clip, a female osprey named Iris defends her nest against an intruder. The unknown osprey intruder attempts to land on the nest, but she thwarts the landing. She eventually pauses her defensive tactics to hunker down and enjoy a nice meal.

This osprey nest is located at Hellgate Canyon near Missoula, Montana. While it is near a very human-heavy location, the birds are only about 50 feet away from the Clark Fork River, so they have plenty of fish. With their impressive six to seven foot wingspans, ospreys soar above the water looking for fish to eat. They can then dive as deep as three feet for their prey. Adult ospreys usually weigh three to four pounds, and they can carry prey up to 50 percent of their own body weight.

Gazing at sun gems

If you prefer speedy birds that look more like floating jewels glistening in the sun, we recommend the Panama Hummingbird Feeder Cam. You can see a colorful array of tropical hummingbirds including violet-bellied hummingbird, snowy-bellied, blue-chested hummingbird, and white-necked jacobin. Hummingbirds are currently migrating in parts of the United States and you can use Audubon’s Bird Migration Explorer to track them.

The Panama Hummingbird Cam at Canopy Tower is a collaboration between the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Canopy Family, and explore.org. It is about 35 miles north of Panama City, Panama, in a vibrant tropical rainforest.