Article for 2011 Mar 31

2011

Appendix

This was a monthly series of articles each focussing on a particular avian species I find interesting, though “Caledonia Gulls” features several species and is in poem form.

Mar 31 Thu “Owly by the night”

Tawny owls, Stryx aluco, are birds which I’ve no photos of because I’ve never seen one. I have often heard them calling during the night (they’re nocturnal). Tawny owls are sometimes known as “screech owls” because they make the “toowit tuwoo” sounds associated with owls; I write “they” and “them” (plural) because they often duet, the female owl screeching the “toowit” and the male answering with the “tuwoooo”.

Both genders look similar: pigeon-sized (38cm long, though females are bigger than males), brown, with a broad head and a wide ring of dark feathers around each eye. Their favourite home is in deciduous forest, and they never usually venture beyond their territories. They eat small animals such as rodents, sparrows, frogs, insects, and worms.

Almost twenty thousand pairs breed in Britain; tawny owls are common across Europe, except northern Scandinavia, most of Russia, Ireland, and several islands (not surprising given their preference for deciduous forests).