| Description |
plumage is chestnut brown, heavily mottled with grey, brown and black streaks; face is round with deep set black eyes; plumage pattern gives this bird a blocky, thick-set look; like the American Barred Owl to which it is related, it lacks ear tufts |
| Sex |
male and female similar in appearance; females slightly larger than males |
| Age |
|
| Length |
12-15" |
| Wingspan |
36-42" |
| Weight |
14-20 oz. |
| Habitat |
Mostly woodlands, parks, and recently urban areas |
| Status |
most common and widespread owl in Europe |
| Range |
with the exception of Ireland, distributed across Europe from Britain to Scandinavia,; into North Africa; North and West Asia |
| Behavior |
territorial owls that use the same range throughout their lives; almost exclusively nocturnal, it hunts by swooping down on is prey from a perch, from which it may locate its prey with its keen hearing; males and females bond for life; the female lays 2-4 eggs in March or early April, in a hole in a tree or an abandoned nest; the female incubates the young while the male hunts and feeds the brood for about 21 days; then both parents feed the chicks; the young owlets leave the nest at 32-37 days and scramble around on nearby branches (at this point they are known as "branchers"; by 2 months old they are flying and beginning to hunt for themselves; by 3 months they are independent and begin to disperse. |
| Diet |
small mammals and rodents, small birds, frogs, fish, insects and worms |
| Vocalization |
the normal call is a duet: the female calls "To-whit", to which the male replies "To-woo"; another call heard primarily in the fall is a loud "kee-wick" |
| Other Information |
- This owl is so popular in Great Britain that it makes an appearance in many pieces of English literature, including "Winnie the Pooh" and the "Harry Potter" books |
