Curious Owls Staring Into Man’s Office Go Viral

Owls are amazing creatures. They can rotate their heads a total of 270 degrees and some have sets of ears all over their heads so they have super-sonic hearing.

But as cool as owls are, would you want a bunch of them (called “a parliament”) peering in your office window while you’re hard at work? Because that’s exactly the problem that a staff member at the University of California Luskin School of Public Affairs is facing.

His colleague Michael Lens, an urban planning professor, first tweeted about the conundrum on April 11. Since then, the owl issue has gone viral with over 47,000 retweets:

Apparently, a owl mama had babies not too long ago, and she decided to nest quite near this startled employee’s window. Now, he gets to see them every day when he is hard at work.

While it may feel creepy to have so many pairs of eyes staring at you all day, the truth is that owls are actually quite harmless. These magnificent creatures are rarely viewed as pests, and instead are highly prized for eating rodents and other small mammals.

Unfortunately, urban development has caused owls to suffer as they have lost much of their habitat to humans, so it’s actually a bit sad that this office employee is now staring out at a family of owls. It could be a sign that these animals are struggling to find their own space in the wilderness as a result of humans’ encroachment on their spaces.

Whatever the case, let’s hope that this office worker keeps his noise level down during the day so that these nocturnal creatures can get some ZZZs!