Eurasian Eagle-Owl

Identification

The Eurasian Eagle-Owl is one of the largest owls in the world and reads as massive even at a distance: a barrel-bodied bird with prominent ear tufts, a broad head, and fierce orange eyes with black pupils. Plumage is a dense mix of tawny-buff, brown and black, heavily mottled and vermiculated, with a white throat patch that often shows when it sings. The ear tufts are display feathers, not ears, raised when the bird is alert or alarmed. The only realistic confusion is with other large Bubo owls, which differ in range, eye colour and voice.

It is nocturnal and rarely stirs before deep dusk, spending the day on a ledge, in a rock crevice or high in a pine. From a cliff or a branch it glides on silent wings and takes genuinely large prey — rabbits, hares, rats, hedgehogs, and regularly other birds of prey, including kestrels, buzzards and other owls. Its song is a deep, resonant two- or three-note 'oo-hoo' that carries a kilometre or more on a still night, and is often the only evidence that a pair is present. The female, much larger than the male, gives a higher, sharper call during courtship and at the nest.

Listen on still nights in late winter — pairs duet from January, well before breeding starts. Good places to look are quarries, cliff faces, rocky gorges and large old trees near open hunting ground; whitewash streaks below a ledge mark a regular roost. Because it is sensitive to disturbance at the nest, keep well back from any site with young, and never approach a calling bird in the breeding season.