Snopes.com and buzzfeed.com both knock down a Twitter feed that argues that a photo of a blue-eyed owl shows it reaching sexual bliss.
“An image showing an owl with a funny facial expression went viral in October 2017 after an alleged ‘Owl Expert’ claimed that the image showed the animal experiencing an orgasm,” Snopes said, which noted: “Dr. Owl” is not an owl expert.
In fact: “This Twitter account was barely a month old when it made the ‘owl orgasm’ claim. This account started by posting political content under the handle @USdotard and the username “Mentally Deranged,“ a reference to the phrase North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un used to insult President Trump.”
So what does the photo show?
“Owls have three eyelids, including a ‘nictitating membrane’ that closes diagonally across the eye,” Snopes found, suggesting the owl is pictured mid-blink.
BuzzFeed News said the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said owls lack facial expressions.
Ornithologist Jamie Dunning added that owls do not have an orgasm the way we humans do.
“They likely do have some sort of reward mechanism for breeding, but birds [have] sex in a very different way,” he said. “It’s really isn’t very raunchy in birds.”
It should also be noted that owls don’t usually have blue eyes, as shown in the one in the meme.
Owl expert here! (Ornithologist) That owl is in fact orgasming
— Dr. Owl (@USdotard) October 24, 2017
“BuzzFeed News reached out to several ornithologists to find out whether owls do have orgasm faces.” https://t.co/IJEXZICeh8
— Julia Reinstein ???? (@juliareinstein) October 25, 2017