Tawny owl

Tawny owls mostly eat mice and voles.

At night they swoop down from a branch and catch them on the ground. Sometimes they eat birds, frogs, beetles and worms.

Mice and voles are the tawny owl's main food. At night it sits on a high perch, listening and watching, then glides down without a sound to snatch a rodent from the forest floor.

It also catches birds, frogs, young rabbits and, when food is hard to find, insects and earthworms. Like other owls, it coughs up pellets containing the remains of its food. Finding pellets under a tree is a clue that an owl roosts there.

Small rodents, especially mice and voles, are the staple diet. The tawny owl is a perch-and-pounce hunter: it descends silently from a high perch to seize prey on the ground, locating it with sensitive hearing as well as vision.

Other prey taken occasionally includes birds, amphibians and young rabbits, and insects and earthworms when food is scarce. The remains of its meals are cast up as pellets, which accumulate beneath roosts and are a sign that an owl is nearby. Shortage of prey is one of the possible causes the RSPB suggests for the species' recent decline in the UK.

You might hear a tawny owl before you see it.

The male hoots "hoo-hoo-hoo". The female answers "kew-wick!" Together they sound like "too-whit, too-woo".

The famous "too-whit, too-woo" call is actually made by two tawny owls. The female calls a shrill "kew-wick" (the "too-whit"), and the male answers with a long, hooting "hoo-hoo-hoo" (the "too-woo").

Tawny owls usually mate for life, and a pair defends its territory from other owls all year round. They are loudest in autumn, when pairs warn off young owls looking for a place to settle. Many pairs use the same territory, and even the same nest hole, for their whole lives.

Tawny owls are territorial and sedentary. The familiar "too-whit, too-woo" is a duet: the female's sharp "kew-wick" combined with the male's hooting "hoo-hoo-hoo". The BTO notes that the species is most vocal in autumn, when territory holders try to stop dispersing juveniles from settling.

Ringing data show that individuals often occupy the same territory, and even the same nest hole or box, throughout their lives. Pairs defend their territory together all year. Because the birds are nocturnal, they are more often heard than seen; the male's call is easy to imitate, and owls often respond to people who copy it.

There are lots of tawny owls in the world.

But in Britain there are fewer than before. Keeping big old trees and woods helps them nest and hunt.

Worldwide, the tawny owl is listed as Least Concern: the IUCN's 2024 assessment estimates about 1.6 to 2.3 million adults, with stable numbers.

In Britain, though, tawny owls declined by more than 40 percent between 1995 and 2023, and they are now on the Amber List of birds of conservation concern. Scientists are not yet sure why. Losing woodland and big old trees with nest holes, and a shortage of mice and voles, may be part of the problem. Some tawny owls nest in nest boxes.

The IUCN's 2024 global assessment lists Strix aluco as Least Concern, with 1,580,000 to 2,340,000 mature individuals and a stable trend; no major global threats are listed.

Regional trends differ. The RSPB reports that UK numbers fell by more than 40 percent between 1995 and 2023, moving the species onto the Amber List; the causes are not known, but habitat loss and prey shortage may contribute, and the Woodland Trust points to loss of woodland and suitable nest trees. Because the species is nocturnal, it is poorly covered by daytime surveys, so the BTO has run dedicated tawny owl surveys, most recently in 2018 and 2019. BTO ringing records show owls using the same nest hole or nest box throughout their lives.