A forest owl with mixed white and brown plumage, found in Eurasia including Japan.
Its plumage blends into trees, and fine serrations on the wing edges help reduce flight noise.
One nest box provided for Ural owls in Hedmark, southeastern Norway, waited ten years for its first breeding occupants. Of four boxes used for breeding, three were occupied in their first year of availability, whereas the fourth was first occupied after ten years. Boxes within the same region could therefore have very different waits before breeding began.
A 2009 paper summarized 25 breeding seasons from 1980 to 2004. Roofed boxes with 18-centimetre entrances were placed 4–6 metres above ground in coniferous woodland near creeks, bogs and lakes. Records were accumulated from the boxes inspected each year. The four boxes used by Ural owls accumulated 19 breeding records. Some provided sites were occupied promptly, while others remained empty for much longer.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
Despite nest-box provision in Hedmark, breeding in the boxes did not increase during the study period. The authors identified winter food availability as a possible limitation at this western range edge, highlighting a need to consider food as well as nesting places. They fitted transmitters to three adults in 1989 to investigate hunting habitats.