Eurasian eagle-owl

Eurasian eagle-owls hunt at night.

They catch rats, mice, voles, rabbits and hares. They also catch birds and even beetles. They fly so quietly that their food does not hear them coming.

Eagle-owls are carnivores. They mostly hunt at dusk and at night, catching almost anything they can, from beetles, mice and voles to rats, rabbits, hares and birds such as crows and ducks. They can even take animals as big as young deer and foxes.

An eagle-owl often watches from a branch at twilight, then swoops onto prey on the ground or catches it in the air. It prefers to hunt in open spaces rather than deep in thick forest.

The eagle-owl is a generalist carnivore. Britannica names rodents, hares, rabbits and large game birds as its main prey; Animal Diversity Web adds beetles, crows and ducks and notes that it can take prey as large as deer fawns and foxes. Tracy Aviary lists occasional reptiles, fish and insects.

It hunts mainly at twilight and at night, typically scanning from a perch and taking prey on the ground or in flight, and favors open areas over dense forest. Keen eyesight and hearing locate prey, and its wings make very little noise in flight.

Eagle-owls like to be alone.

But each owl has a partner for life. They call to each other at night with deep hoots and soft clucks.

Eurasian eagle-owls are mostly solitary, except when they pair up to breed, and a pair is thought to stay together for life. They defend their territory fiercely against other owls.

Partners keep track of each other by calling, and people often hear them at night. To show a good nest site, an owl scrapes a shallow hollow in the ground and calls with short notes and clucking sounds.

Eagle-owls are largely solitary outside the breeding season and strongly territorial, defending their range against other owls. Pairs are thought to be lifelong.

Animal Diversity Web describes how they advertise potential nest sites by scraping a shallow depression and giving staccato notes and clucking calls, the same sounds partners use to keep track of each other. Breeding is sensitive to food supply: when prey is scarce, pairs breed later and raise fewer young. Adults have no regular natural predators.

There are still many Eurasian eagle-owls.

But in some places there are fewer than before. Keeping wild rocky places and forests helps them.

The Eurasian eagle-owl is listed as Least Concern, so it is not in danger of disappearing soon. The IUCN's global assessment estimates about 100,000 to 500,000 adult birds.

Even so, its numbers are going down overall. Animal Diversity Web says the main reason is habitat loss as people build on and farm the places where the owls live. International trade in eagle-owls is controlled by an agreement called CITES.

The IUCN's global assessment (assessed 2016, amended version published 2017) lists Bubo bubo as Least Concern with 100,000 to 499,999 mature individuals and a decreasing trend. Animal Diversity Web describes the species as rare but not threatened and attributes its decline to habitat loss from human encroachment. It is listed on CITES Appendix II.

A newer IUCN assessment exists for Europe only; the figures here come from the global assessment, which covers the whole range. Animal Diversity Web notes that wild birds live about 20 years, while captive eagle-owls can live more than 60.