From Dane D Ward

Female Eastern screech owl pulling up her pant legs to check out her fuzzy little raptor legs. **I know its a female because the babies got too big inside the nesting cavity so she perched outside of it just a few feet away. 20 feet away from her was the even smaller male.

*She's actually biting at the brood patch. But it looks like shes pulling pant legs up...I dunno. That's how I see it.

My yard
Dunnellon, Florida

It’s like this owl is lifting her petticoat and checking out the pantaloons or bloomers or whatever they were called back in the day.

My thoughts exactly!

Oh yeah! I should probably give a refresher on brood patches...

So, where her face is, you can see a bit of a bald patch on her belly. When it's egg laying time, momma birds will pluck this area, and the skin will get a bit slack. By clearing out those feathers and that fleshy spot getting a bit more supple, she will get better body heat transfer to the eggs and then to the hatchlings before their down grows in.

Here's a clearer view of a brood patch on a Little Owl.

And then throw your legs in the air and do a cancan.

TIL owls will pluck to create a brood patch... amongst other birds. I just thought up until today it automatically formed at the onset of the breeding season. I imagine it must be a bit painful for them, though.

Just one of the joys of owl motherhood! As I learned of just how hard it can be for many bird parents to raise babies, I've really become appreciative of the effort and sacrifice they put into raising young.

Since it's an instinctive behavior, I'd think it either didn't hurt much, or if normal feather plucking was somewhat painful, if the skin changes to that area would make it less ouchy than normal.

As my body gets older and stranger, I've learned to pluck errant facial hairs of different types, and while it isn't a fun activity, it's more a mild annoyance than something painful. Yoink!