Little Owl

Identification

The Little Owl is small, short-tailed and flat-headed, with a rounded crown, no ear tufts, pale almost white eyebrows that meet over the bill, and yellow eyes with a direct, faintly indignant stare. The back is earth-brown spotted with white, the underparts whitish with heavy dark streaks, and the crown finely speckled. In flight it looks compact and undulating rather than gliding like a Barn Owl. Its build and daytime habits recall a small falcon more than a typical owl.

The Little Owl is the most diurnal of the European owls and is often seen perched on a post, wall or wire in broad daylight, bobbing its head and flicking its short tail when something catches its attention. It hunts beetles, crickets, earthworms and small mammals, and usually drops to the ground from a perch to snatch prey from the surface rather than pursuing it in the air. The call is a rising, querulous 'kiew' or a repeated sharp 'wheee-o', heard most often at dusk, and pairs will call in a quick antiphonal duet.

Look for it at dawn and dusk around old pastures, orchards, ruined buildings, stone walls, quarries and pollarded trees, where it nests in cavities. It loves to sit at the entrance hole, so scan old walls and hollow trunks slowly — the pale speckled crown breaking the outline is usually what gives it away. It also hunts by day, so a mid-morning walk through open farmland can produce a bird on a fence post that simply watches you go past.