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Eurasian Eagle-owl

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Conservation

Scientific name: Bubo bubo
Family name: Strigidae

Are they endangered? No, they are not endangered worldwide. [IUCN Red list: Least concern]

What are their past/present problems? Man is an enemy to these birds because they are the cause of poisoning and trapping.  The birds will catch rats that have been poisoned to get rid of them.  When these birds eat them, they get poisoned, too.  Their numbers go down when forests are cut down.

Eurasian Eagle-owl
With permission from
Dimitri Vasiliou

What do they look like? These birds have ear tufts because they are horned owls.  They have orange eyes.  They are very large raptors.  They are mostly brown with dark brown streaks on their bodies.

How big are they? They are 2 feet long.  If they spread out their wings as far as possible, they would be 6 feet wide.

How many eggs do they lay?  Females lay between 2 and 4 white eggs once a year.  The eggs hatch in about 5 weeks.

How long do the fledglings stay in the nest? Eurasian Eagle-owls like to nest on rocky flat places on mountains and in cracks between rocks.   Sometimes they use nests that have been left by other birds of prey.  Young birds [fledglings] stay in the nest for about 4 months.

When do they hunt?   They hunt at night.  [nocturnal]

What do they eat?  They eat small animals like MICE and birds.   They will eat larger animals like foxes. 

Where do they live? They live in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, the Netherlands, Japan and Korea.

What kind of place do they like to live in? They like mountains, forests with pine and spruce trees, grasslands, and grassy areas that have many shrubs in them. 

Interesting facts:
If they catch big prey, they will eat it on the ground.  Other prey they will eat in the air.
These birds will sit on high perches, look for prey, and then swoop down to get it.

Works Cited:

Bubo bubo.  21 Feb. 2008.  <http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/details.php/48526/all>.

Eurasian Eagle-Owl.  21 Feb. 2008.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Eagle_Owl>.

Eurasian Eagle Owl.  21 Feb. 2008.  <http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Bubo&species=bubo>.

Eurasian Eagle-Owl.  21 Feb. 2008.  <http://www.peregrinefund.org/Explore_Raptors/owls/eagleowl.html>.

Vasiliou, Dimitri.  "Re: Picture donation".  Email to Club Web  17 Mar. 2008.


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