A small owl with yellow eyes and brown plumage, found around farmland and open country.
Adults have cream spots and streaks over dark-brown plumage, with a yellow bill and eyes.
GPS tracking in 2019 and 2020 followed six Little Owls in Denmark and six in Czechia. In both areas, the birds selected short vegetation and structurally varied places such as field edges.
Their average nightly range differed sharply: about 62 hectares for Danish males and 2 for females, compared with about 3 hectares for both sexes in Czechia. The Danish owls received supplementary food, while the Czech birds did not. These movement records came from two declining breeding populations in farmland.GPS positions were collected once a minute and grouped into nightly space-use ranges. The supplementary-fed Danish owls also selected short vegetation and field edges.
PLOS ONE field study (2021) · Study introduction describes the Danish and Czech populations as declining; no formal category supplied. · Local populations in Denmark and the Czech Republic
A 2021 study examined two declining Little Owl breeding populations, in Denmark and Czechia. The tracked birds selected short vegetation and field-edge habitats; six birds per site were tracked, and Danish birds received supplementary food. The paper reports movement and habitat use rather than a formal species-level category.