Yeah, there had been some very noisy songbirds fighting over berries, and the owl peeked out to scare them off and then went back under the leaves. I'd been photographing the songbirds and was very surprised when the owl appeared!

Thank you, and such a perfect shot. Muchly appreciated

So it wasn't exactly defensive behavior against a large predator, but it was definitely aggressive and trying to scare away the other birds. It worked, too!