Within the strigid family, one of the owls and other nocturnal animals, we spot the brilliant Eagle Owl. This species is unique in many ways, highlighting its regal appearance and wonderful adaptability.
Eagle owls are animals that carry been admired since medieval times, especially for their peculiar singing. They are also wonderful as a way to control plagues and avoid invasive species from nesting in areas where they are not endemic. Do you want to know slightly more about the Eagle Owl and its primary characteristics? Keep reading this sheet and discover the most interesting facts about these great animals.
Eagle Owl history
The eagle owl belongs to the genus Bubo, to which more than 20 species of owls belong, so-called eagle owls or cuckolds. These species are spotted in various countries and are characterized by their big size.
Specifically, the Eagle Owl has an overall of 16 subspecies, each with unique and particular characteristics:
- Japanese Eagle Owl.
- European Eagle Owl.
- Himalayan Eagle Owl.
- Iberian Eagle Owl.
- Byzantine Eagle Owl.
- Yakutia Eagle Owl.
- Chinese Eagle Owl.
- Afghan Eagle Owl.
- Turkmen Eagle Owl.
- Russian Eagle Owl.
- Western Siberian eagle owl.
- Eagle owl of Tarim.
- Tibetan eagle owl.
- Eagle owl steppe.
- Eagle owl of the Ussuri.
- Eastern Siberian eagle owl.
These owls receive their name from the sound of their song, which sounds for instance their name “bubo, bubo”, hence in the medieval bestiaries, where it was pretty appreciated, it was so-called the same as this onomatopoeia emitted by them, being already known as bubos.
Historically, they carry performed various tasks when being bred in captivity, something relatively easy, since it is easy to domesticate them. That is why they carry been usual for centuries in falconry, as well as in pest control, and to avoid the nesting of unwanted animals, for instance, gulls or pigeons.
Characteristics of the Eagle Owl
The Eagle Owl is a striggly pet, or nocturnal raptor, of wonderful size, since the average dimensions of among these owls are about 70 centimeters from head to tail, 150 centimeters in wingspan, and between 2.5 and 3.5 kilograms in weight. Even so, there carry been specimens that carry surpassed four kilograms and 170 centimeters in wingspan, being extremely large.
They carry great and striking eyes of a vivid orange tint, presenting a bold and penetrating look. Prefer everything Eagle Owls, it has two feathered tufts that look for instance ears, placed on the sides of its skull. A curiosity is that males generally carry the plumage of these plumes more erected, something used by experts to differentiate males and females of Eagle Owl.
In addition to their big wingspan, which is already imposing, they carry firm, sharp claws, ready for action at any time. This, combined with their short but powerful beak, makes them a lethal predator, capable of capturing pieces considerably larger than their own.
Its plumage is made up of a mantle of feathers, certainly a mixture of soft and rigid feathers, which allow it to fly in a quite stealthy way. These plumage are brown and marbled and vary between brown, white, and dark-colored shades.
Eagle Owl Habitat
The Eagle Owl is widely distributed throughout Eurasia, except for the Arctic and tropical areas of Southeast Asia, as well as arid areas for instance Arabia or island areas for instance the Mediterranean islands or the United Kingdom. It usually avoids population centers, preferring places more remote from human populations.
In general, these pets are pretty adaptive, since the only thing they require is to carry enough space to perform their flight maneuvers well. However, they seem to prefer areas with cliffs and ravines, where there are trees and bushes, as they tend to nest on the rock, as we will comment when talking about their breeding habits. The motive why they avoid arid or polar areas is because of the lack of prey at their disposal since it is in wooded places or soft soil where they can catch rodents that dig their burrows in those soils.
As for the altitude, the eagle owl does not suffer from vertigo, since it inhabits places as high as the Alps (reaching 2100 meters of altitude), the Himalayas, or the Tibetan mountains.
They are not migratory animals, they generally live in the same pet shop during their total life, being sedentary and not abandoning their home except in cases of extreme need, for instance, the destruction of the same or the lack of food.
Reproduction of the Eagle Owl
In the reproduction of the Eagle Owl, we must highlight its courtship, because it is then when the males sing the wedding song that is so famous. This can be heard from autumn to winter when it becomes more powerful. After the courtship, which includes the song of the male and various movements that serve to attract the female, copulation runs the place.
Between January and February, the female lays a clutch, generally consisting of between two and four completely white eggs, which will be the only among the total year. These eggs need to be incubated for about 35 days, something that the mother does exclusively. To lay the eggs, the females prepare their nests where they can, without building a nest as such, but taking over advantage of native nests, for instance, holes in trees or cavities in rocks, although it has also been seen that they take advantage of other birds’ nests spotted in trees.
They commence incubating as soon as they lay the 1st of their eggs, which is why the chicks don’t hatch at the same time but do so at the wrong time one after the other. This causes a hierarchy of food at this time, from the moment they are born. In this way, the eldest plays with advantage, because when their siblings are born, they are already bigger and stronger.
The feeding of the chicks is done by both parents, however, the female dedicates much more time and effort to feed her chicks, which commence exploring the surroundings of the nest shortly after they are born. However, they do not make their 1st flights until they are about two months old, being fed by their parents for another month, leaving their nest definitively when they are 3 months old.
Food and habits of the Eagle Owl
The Eagle Owl is a solitary creature, which only meets its congeners in the breeding season, performing courtship, copulation and that’s it. As distant as the feeding of the Eagle Owl is concerned, they are now super depredators, being at the greatest of the food chain because except for the human being, they do not carry any native predator. They are carnivorous and feed on their prey, which is preferably rabbits and partridges.
They are nocturnal pets that move with great stealth, being able to stalk their prey for a long time without being noticed. They stalk them until they consider that the perfect moment has reached, in which they throw themselves at them, holding on to them with their sharp claws and thick beaks. They stand out because, in addition to rabbits and rodents, which are shorter, they are capable of hunting animals for instance fawns, weighing more than 10 kilograms, which is more than double their own torso weight.
State of conservation of the Eagle Owl
Because Eagle Owls carry partridges and rabbits as their most, not uncommon prey, they were chased by hunters, who saw their prey being taken away by these pets. Until 1973, when the species was legally guarded, they were now vermin and were mercilessly annihilated.
But not only hunters are dangerous for the conservation of this species, as there carry been numerous cases of eagle owls that die from their impact against wind turbines and fences, others that are run over, and those that suffer electrocutions for leaning on electrified lines. But the saddest thing is the number of them that die at the hands of poachers and because of the unstoppable destruction of their habitats.
For all these reasons, the Eagle Owl is now a species of particular interest, being discontinued as an endangered species due to the improvement in the evolution of its populations. Specifically, it is estimated that in Spain there are between 2,500 and 5,000 pairs of Eagle Owls, while in Europe the figures are between 12,000 and 42,000 pairs
