Tawny Owls have such large eyes for their body size that they can't move them in their sockets, they swivel their entire head instead.
Their 'too-whoo' call is the iconic owl sound of European folklore, actually the female 'kewick' answered by the male's 'hooo'.
Tawny Owls are sedentary; pairs hold the same territory for life and rarely move more than a kilometer in their lifetime.
Tawny Owls take to large nest boxes high in mature woodland. They're remarkably tolerant of human structures.
Mount a Tawny Owl box (large, ~30cm wide, top entrance) 4–6 m up on a mature tree trunk.
They hunt their own, rodents, birds, and large insects.
Mature deciduous canopy nearby for daytime roosting.
Don't approach the box at night during nesting; territorial owls have famously injured photographers.
A widespread European and Asian forest owl. Common in Britain and across most of Europe.
Common resident throughout Europe except Ireland and northern Scandinavia.
Resident from western Russia east to Korea and Japan.
Local resident in the Atlas Mountains.
Mature deciduous and mixed woodland, parks, mature gardens, churchyards. They prefer old-growth structure with cavity trees.
This species needs a box larger or differently-shaped than our three standard sizes. We make these as one-off prints to the published nest dimensions, with all the species-specific requirements baked in.
Britain's most common owl; pairs are intensely territorial, only one box per ~50-acre wood.