Eurasian Pygmy Owl

How to recognise it

• About the size of a Starling, female larger than male, with no ear tufts
• Grey-brown upperparts with whitish spots, white underparts with brown lengthwise streaks
• Small head with yellow eyes, white to grey eyebrows and a white half-collar
• White bars across the tail, which is often flicked sideways or cocked steeply

Call and song

The song is a steady series of soft, monotone whistles about one second apart. It carries 500 metres to a kilometre. The female sounds like the male but higher. Before and after the mating season both sexes give a rising series of five to seven notes. In February to April it holds territory, often singing from a spruce top.

Where and when

It lives mainly in larger, older mixed conifer forests with many deciduous trees such as aspen and birch. It is absent from small, isolated woods, Öland, Gotland, the mountains and forests near them. It is reported most in February and rarely in May to August. Its share of all bird reports is highest in Västmanland, Västernorrland and Jämtland. It is Near Threatened on the Swedish Red List 2025.

Food and behaviour

It feeds mainly on voles and shrews, but while the young are growing, small birds up to thrush size make up a large part. It often stores food in holes in trees. It is fairly tame and most active at dawn and dusk, but is also seen by day. It flies in soft undulations like a woodpecker. Small birds, especially Coal Tits, react to its call with loud alarm.