How do owls feed their babies

About Owls I Owl Research Institute

A FAMILY OF OWLS

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Like hawks and eagles, owls are called raptors, or birds of prey, which means they use sharp talons and curved bills to hunt, kill, and eat other animals.

But owls are different from hawks and eagles in several ways. Most owls have huge heads, stocky bodies, soft feathers, short tails, and a reversible toe that can point either forward or backward. Owl’s eyes face forward, like humans do. Most owl species are active at night, not in the daytime.

There are about 250 species of owls in the world. They live on every continent except icy Antarctica.

Owls belong to a group of birds called Strigiformes. That group is divided into two smaller groups, known as families. The family called Tytonidae includes Barn Owls, which have heart-shaped faces. The second family, Strigidae, includes all other owls, most of which have round faces.

Many owls vocalize at a distinctively low frequency, which allows their songs to travel long distances without being absorbed by vegetation. Becoming familiar with these songs and other vocalizations will help you find and identify owls.

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OWLS ON THE HUNT

Many owl species are nocturnal, meaning they are active at night. There are some owl species who are diurnal, however, meaning they are active during the day but rest at night. Crepuscular species are active during dusk and dawn.

Owls spend much of their waking time hunting for food. Many owl species are carnivores, or meat eaters. Small, rodent-like mammals, such as voles and mice, are the primary prey for many owl species. An owl's diet may also include frogs, lizards, snakes, fish, mice, rabbits, birds, squirrels, and other creatures. Occasionally, Great Horned Owls might even find skunks tasty enough to eat. Some owls, like the Flammulated Owl eat insects almost exclusively. Animals that eat insects are called insectivores.

Owls hunt in various ways. One hunting technique is called perch and pounce. In this method owls perch comfortably until they see their prey, then glide down upon it; Northern Hawk Owls use this approach. Another approach to hunting, called quartering flight, is to search for prey while flying, as utilized by the Barn Owl.

Sometimes owls – most often those that hunt in open country like the Short-eared Owl – hover like a helicopter above prey until they are ready to zoom in on it. Hovering takes a lot of energy. Burrowing Owls commonly run across the ground after their prey. In all methods, owls generally hunt close to the ground so that they can more easily hear and see their prey.

Owls sometimes hide their food. They capture prey and use their bill to carefully stuff the food into a hiding spot. This is called caching (pronounced CASH-ing). Owls might cache prey in holes in trees, in the forks of tree branches, behind rocks, or in clumps of grass. Owls do this when the hunting is good in order to stock up and will usually go back for the prey within a day or two.

HANGING OUT - ROOSTING

At the end of a day or night spent hunting, owls return to a resting place, called a roost. Most owls roost alone, or near a nest during the breeding season. However, there are a few species that roost communally, or share a roosting area with other individuals of the same species.

Although poorly understood, owls may benefit in one or more ways from sharing the same roost. The owls can watch for mobbing songbirds and predators. They may also huddle together to keep each other warm. Shared roosts probably make it easier for owls to find partners during the mating season. Owls may even pass along information about good hunting spots. The roost is commonly located next to good hunting grounds so owls can search for prey as soon as they leave or return to the roost.

PAIRING UP - MATING SEASON

Late winter is mating time for most owls. Males begin seeking mates by calling through the afternoon and evening air.

Generally, the large owls hoot and the small owls toot. The large Barred Owl hoots in a loud, low call that sounds like a question, "Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?" The small Northern Saw-whet Owl sings in a rapid, high tone that some people think sounds like a file being scraped across the teeth of a saw. You can listen to the individual owl calls on our Owl ID pages.

A female owl will listen for a call that interests her. She will only respond to calls from males of the same species. Once a male owl gains the interest of a female, he starts performing, or showing off. He might display his feathers by fluffing them out. He might give the female gifts of food. Some males even ‘sky dance.’ A male Short-eared Owl will circle high above the female he is courting and clap his wings under his belly several times during a dive. Then he will fly up again and hang in the wind. He may repeat this dance several times, all in an effort to impress the female. At the end of the performance, the male dives past the female into the grass. If the female follows him, the two owls may become a mating pair.

Mating owls spend a great deal of time together. They may rub their bills across each other’s heads and facial discs. This gesture is called preening. Scientists think it reduces fighting and other aggressive behavior. It also helps owls keep their feathers in good condition. Many owl pairs stretch their necks forward toward their mates and coo, as if they enjoy the preening session.

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HAND-ME-DOWN HOMES - NESTING

Owls are talented hunters, but nest builders they are not. Many owls take advantage of the hard work performed by other animals, instead of building their nests from scratch.

Some owls, like Great Horned Owls, use vacant nests in trees or on cliffs that were built by hawks, crows, magpies, or other birds. Many owls simply nest in holes, called cavities or hollows, in trees. These tree cavities occur naturally, but are often created by woodpeckers. Elf Owls nest in saguaro cacti, where woodpeckers have created ready-made holes.

Barn Owls typically nest in the rafters of barns, in empty buildings or silos, or in cavities along cliffs. Burrowing Owls live up to their name by nesting in underground tunnels that were dug by ground squirrels, prairie dogs, badgers, or other burrowing animals. Some Burrowing Owls use their feet and bills to dig burrows themselves. Snowy Owls and Short-eared Owls "build" simple nests by scraping a shallow bowl on the ground.

Scientists think male owls find and advertise a territory, but female owls select the actual nest sites. Together, the owl pair defends their nest. The nest area will be the owl family’s home for several months.

RAISING A FAMILY - INCUBATION

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If local food supplies are low in a given year, owls may not breed there. But if enough food is available to feed a growing family, female owls lay one to fourteen roundish white eggs. Females from different owl species lay different numbers of eggs. The number also depends on how much food is available. For example, if local vole populations are high, a female Short-eared Owl might lay as many as ten eggs. If the vole population is low, she might lay just three or four eggs, or none at all.

Eggs are usually laid one to four days apart. The female owl sits on the eggs to keep them warm. This is called incubation. Only female owls incubate eggs. During the incubation period, the female loses the feathers on her belly in order to transfer more body heat to the eggs. She presses the warm bare skin, or brood patch, against the eggs. She lies on the nest in the incubation position, with her head low and stomach down, keeping the eggs warm all the time.

Baby owls, called owlets or nestlings, hatch 3 to 5 weeks after the eggs are laid, depending on the species. Because eggs are laid on different days, the female will generally begin incubation with the first egg, and the eggs will hatch in the order they were laid. This is called asynchronous hatching, which results in different age nestlings within the same nest. The first nestlings to hatch can be one to two weeks older than the last ones to hatch.

RAISING A FAMILY - BROODING

When young owls hatch, they are covered with white, downy feathers and their eyes are closed. Several days after hatching, their eyes open and their white downy feathers are replaced with darker ones, often gray or brownish. When the female sits on a nest of hatched chicks it is called brooding. For the first couple weeks of life nestlings are helpless; they are unable to see, fly, or thermoregulate (maintain their own body temperature). Their mother broods them by keeping them safely under and around her in the nest.

Male owls hunt and bring food to the nest. Female owls will often tear the prey into smaller pieces and feed them to the nestlings. Owls grow quickly and within weeks begin to eat some prey whole, spit up pellets, and thermoregulate.

Nestlings compete with each other for food. Because the older nestlings are bigger and stronger than those hatched a few days later, they may get most of the meat. If food is scarce, the younger owlets may even starve to death. When the nestlings are able to maintain their body temperature, the female may leave the nest to help hunt. The nestlings cry out to their parents for food; these are called food begging calls.

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FLEEING THE NEST - FLEDGING

After nestlings are capable of thermoregulation, but often before they can fly, they leave the nest and hide in the surrounding vegetation. Nestlings raised in tree nests, like Northern Hawk-Owls, climb on nearby branches until they are ready to fly. Those that nest on the ground, like Short-eared Owls, find cover in nearby grass or shrubs until they can fly. This period of exploration is called branching or nest dispersal. When nestlings first gain the ability to fly, they are called fledglings.

Short-eared owlets develop faster than any other North American species. They start to venture outside the nest when they are just two weeks old and take their first flights after 4-5 weeks. Barn Owls and Great Horned Owls are some of the slowest to develop, staying in, or near, the nest for 6 weeks or more and begin taking their first flights when 7 to 8 weeks old.

By autumn, most parents are finished raising their families. The fledglings have grown their adult feathers, and they are now full-sized owls. The young adults are ready for life on their own. Although owls have been known to live up to 25 years, the average life span for most species is probably much lower. Generally, the larger species of owls live longer than the smaller species.

PROTECTING A FUTURE FOR OWLS

The text for the About Owls page comes from the book -

Owls, Whoo are they? written by Kila Jarvis and Denver Holt

Illustrated by Leslie Leroux and Courtney Couch

In cooperation with the Owl Research Institute

Buy the book

Owls have three basic needs: food, somewhere safe to roost, and a place to nest. Owls live where their basic needs are met. The place where an animal naturally lives and grows is called its habitat. Forest, grassland, desert, tundra, and wooded gully habitats have plants, landforms, and animals that are important to the survival of each owl species that lives there.

Short-eared Owls, for example, require large tracts of contiguous open-country habitat, like grasslands, to survive. These habitats provide cover that hide the owls’ roosts and nest but, more importantly, provide habitat for the small rodents that Short-eared Owls eat. Southern desert habitat has saguaro cacti that Elf Owls nest in, and the insects, spiders, scorpions, and small reptiles that they eat. Great Horned Owls nest and hunt in almost every natural habitat.

When we clear out native vegetation and destroy habitat, it forces owls to move, and it means that more owls must crowd into less space. The crowded areas may not have the food supply to nourish all the owls sharing the space. Some owls may even starve.

It is important that we find a balance between our use of land and wildlife’s need for habitat. The Owl Research Institute works to inform policy and land management decisions that protect owls and their habitats. But we cannot do it without your help. Get involved with at your local level and, if possible, consider a contribution to the research and conservation we do at ORI.

Baby Owls: All You Need To Know (with Pictures)

What does a baby owl look like?

How big are baby owls?

How much do baby owls weigh?

What do juvenile owls look like?

What is a baby owl called?

What is a group of baby owls called?

Do baby owls flock together?

What do baby owls eat?

How do baby owls learn to hunt?

What do owl eggs look like?

How long do owl eggs take to hatch?

When do owls lay eggs?

How do owls feed their chicks?

When can baby owls fly?

When do baby owls leave their nests?

Do owls reuse nests?

How long do baby owls stay with their parents?

Do owls abandon their babies?

Why do baby owls sleep with their heads down?

Owls are secretive creatures. In fact, anyone would be lucky to see an owl in the wild - you’re much more likely to hear their distinctive hooting sound instead!

To see a baby owl would be even less likely, so we’ve created this article on everything you need to know about baby owls alongside plenty of baby owl pictures.

What does a baby owl look like?

Most baby owls are extremely fluffy, usually covered in a very thick white or grey down. They often have black button-like round eyes and heart-shaped heads. A hook-shaped beak protrudes from the fluff. Baby owls also have a quite pronounced egg tooth, a sharp protrusion from their beak that allows them to pierce the egg whilst hatching. These disappear within a week or so of hatching.

Some baby owls do have quite a peculiar look, especially Barn owls, who can have quite pronounced long faces that contrast with their white fluffy bodies.

A baby Tawny Owlet

How big are baby owls?

The owlets of even the largest owls, such as the Great Horned owl, Snowy owl and Eurasian Eagle owls, are pretty small considering how large some of these birds are. Snowy owl chicks, for example, are just a minuscule 6.5cm (2.5in) tall. Fully grown, they stand at around 2.5 feet tall!

It’s a similar story with Great Horned owls, who are just around 3 inches tall at birth. Owl chicks grow at an astonishing rate but amongst the smallest and most helpless of all baby birds. This is quite typical of birds of prey, and it means that the first few days of life are absolutely critical to long-term survival.

How much do baby owls weigh?

The babies of even large owl species will only reach around 40g to 60g (2oz) at birth. For comparison, a standard chicken chick might weigh approximately 30g and a duckling around 50g. Great Horned owl babies weigh just around 35g (1.2oz). As a rule, owlets really are very tiny indeed!

Two of the smallest owls in the world, the Elf owl and Pygmy owl, weigh just 40g when fully grown (1.5 oz), and their chicks weigh in at a minuscule 4g (0.14oz)! They are barely larger than a Bumblebee.

A baby long-eared owlet perched in a tree

What do juvenile owls look like?

Owl chicks grow and accumulate weight extremely quickly in their first month. Between day 14 and day 28 owlets can easily double in weight, their faces becoming flatter and more pronounced. The Great Horned owl is just 35g (1.2oz) at birth, but reaches 800 grams (28oz) in just around 1 month!

The thick fluffy down begins to give way to more typical adult feathers, but the down will remain for at least 2 months. Juvenile owls may well fledge the nest before they’ve lost all of their baby feathers but will likely resemble adult owls after around 14 weeks.

What is a baby owl called?

Baby owls are typically called owlets whilst they’re still in their fluffy down and are yet to develop feathers or adult plumage.

An extremely rare capture of some newly hatched long-eared owl owlets

What is a group of baby owls called?

Seeing a group of owls (a parliament or congress) is a rare enough sight as it is, but seeing a group of baby owls in the wild is exceptionally rare.

Owls typically lay small clutches, usually numbering just around 4 to 6 eggs, though some species lay as few as 1 to 3 and some 10 to 12, depending on the season. Overall, owls have secretive nests of just a small number of chicks, and owl chicks only spend 1 to 3 months in the nest before fledging and becoming independent. This is why you’re so unlikely to see baby owls together, even from the same nest.

Three Little Owl Owlets in a tree nest

Do baby owls flock together?

It’d be very unlikely for the owlets of different mated owl couples to flock together. It is true that owls are primarily solitary, tending to isolate themselves in their monogamous pairs.

Some species, such as the Burrowing owl and Tawny owl, do flock together and live in small groups throughout some of the year at least, in which case owlets may spend some time mingling outside of their family units. In general, baby owls are highly independent as soon as they leave the nest after around 12 weeks at the most.

What do baby owls eat?

Owls are almost exclusively carnivorous, meaning they solely consume meat. Larger owls eat primarily mammals, reptiles, birds and fish whereas small owls are more likely to prey on insects, arthropods and small rodents.

Baby owls eat whatever their parents feed them. They’ll tear food into small chunks that the owlets can swallow whole.

A Barred owl feeding their young

How do baby owls learn to hunt?

Baby owls receive practically no guidance or instruction on hunting and hunt on instinct alone. Juvenile owls will have to hunt for themselves after leaving the nest.

What do owl eggs look like?

Owl eggs are typically all-white and have no particularly unique identifying characteristics. Some owl species lay much more glossy and shiny eggs than others (e.g. the Tawny owl).

The eggs of a Tawny owl

How long do owl eggs take to hatch?

The eggs of many species of owls tend to hatch within 30 to 35 days. For example, both the Snowy, Little and Barn owl’s eggs hatch in 31 to 33 days. Eagle Owl eggs may take around 35 days to hatch. Thirty-two days seems like a reasonable average across all species of owls. This is around average amongst all birds of prey also.

When do owls lay eggs?

Owls typically lay their eggs in the springtime, usually no earlier than March. Some species of owls, such as the rare Blakiston's fish owl, do not lay eggs every year - if the winter is particularly harsh and they cannot hunt sufficient food, then they may skip a year entirely.

Other species such as the Great Horned owl and the Barred owl are known for laying their eggs very early in the year, sometimes even in the mid-winter of January and February. These eggs are incubated at very low temperatures - owls can successfully incubate eggs in outside temperatures of some -35°F (-37°C).

If food is scarce, the female may join the male to hunt, leaving eggs unattended in freezing temperatures.

A family of Great Horned Owls

How do owls feed their chicks?

The male typically takes on the role of the hunter during the owlet’s first few weeks, bringing food to feed both the female and the owlet. The female will rip this food up into tiny pieces that the chick can swallow whole. Owlets grow at an astonishing rate and are quickly able to consume the same diet as their parents.

The older chicks are usually fed first as they’re the largest and strongest in the nest, possibly even leaving the smallest, latest chicks to starve if food is scarce.

A barn owl feeding a young owl a mouse

When can baby owls fly?

The owlets of some species such as the Screech owl are ready to fly in just over 1 month, but others, such as the Great Horned owl, can take as long as 2.5 months. Like many birds of prey, owls are ‘born ready’ and develop quickly, developing flying and hunting skills by instinct rather than by watching their parents. Owls are quite distinctive in how quickly chicks become independent from their parents.

When do baby owls leave their nests?

Baby owls are relatively quick to leave their nests compared to other species of birds, with some leaving the nest after just four weeks or so. Other owl species will stay in their nests for longer, such as Barn owl owlets, who might stay with their parents for ten weeks. This is still a quick transition compared to other birds who often stay with their parents for the remainder of the spring and summer at least.

A family of Barn Owls

Do owls reuse nests?

Owl nests are generally too poor to reuse - they are not famed for their nest-building abilities!

Instead, owls tend to be opportunistic nesters and will take their chances at nesting in any sufficiently safe location. If they can help it, they’ll avoid building much of a nest at all, instead choosing to nest in tree hollows or abandoned buildings. They’re also excellent at stealing the nesting sites of other birds.

How long do baby owls stay with their parents?

Baby owls do not stay with their parents for long at all, sometimes as little as one month. This is relatively standard amongst birds of prey who are quick to become independent from their parents, establishing their own territories before the following winter comes.

A young Spotted Owlet sleeping on a branch

Do owls abandon their babies?

Despite the seemingly quick transition from an owlet to an owl, owl parents are dedicated to their chicks. They will not abandon them if they’re handled by humans and will not easily abandon a nest if it’s visited by other predators.

Why do baby owls sleep with their heads down?

Some baby owls have been observed to sleep in a somewhat collapsed position with their heads down towards the floor. This is because their heads are large and heavy - they’re literally unable to hold them up for the first few days of their lives!

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Feeding little owlets: bjorn_varulv — LiveJournal

Owlets are born covered in white down and blind.
Feeding such an owlet is a difficult and responsible task. It is better if specialists do this, but specialists in feeding owls are a very rare thing in the world and in our country in particular. There are almost no correct recommendations on the Internet, and those that are, unfortunately, are most often based on information copied from each other and contain the same errors.

Which in the end can lead to the death of the chicks.
It must be understood that owls have a very specific digestion, which is different from the digestion of other birds of prey. And advice on rearing diurnal predators is not good for owlets, if only for the simple reason that owlets, unlike falcons and hawks, do not have goiter. Their digestive system is arranged differently, so it is important to listen to the recommendations of an experienced specialist in owls, and not in birds of prey in general.

The photo shows a Tawny Owl owlet just hatched from an egg.

How to maintain?

Newborn owlets need constant heating: the temperature should be maintained at about 37 degrees Celsius. Owlets can be placed, for example (as the simplest option), in a "nest" made of a box and a terry towel, and heating is carried out using a 40-60 W incandescent lamp, after setting it at such a distance from the nest to provide the desired temperature. It is dangerous to both overheat and overcool the chicks.

How often to feed?

Owls need to be fed very often during the first few days. If these are small species of owls, such as splyushki or owls, you need to feed every half an hour with a break for a night's sleep no longer than four hours. Larger ones, such as Tawny Owls, Long-eared and Short-eared Owls, need to be fed every hour with a break for a night's sleep of no longer than five hours. As you grow older, the frequency of feeding should be reduced. Monthly owls are enough to feed 5-6 times a day.
You should always feed when the owls require food. Until full saturation. Owlets eat a lot and a lot. For example, a week-old eared owl owlet eats five or six quail breast fillets per day, that is, about half of its own weight.
The main rule: it is impossible to overfeed the owlets! But underfeeding - easily.

What to feed?

Owlets grow rapidly and the slightest mistake in the diet and diet instantly affect their health.

Owl food must be nutritious and contain sufficient amounts of essential vitamins, trace elements, minerals and amino acids. An ideally balanced food for owls in this respect is the meat of domestic quails. This meat contains a lot of calcium, which is extremely important for the body of owls, especially in the first days of life.

Almost all advice on feeding owls that can be found on the Internet contains a serious mistake: they recommend feeding owls with meat with bones and hair, regardless of the age of the owlet.
But the fact is that the body of very young owlets is not yet able to get rid of undigested parts of food, that is, newborn owlets are not able to form and shed a pellet.
The mother owl feeds her newborn babies by carefully choosing the meat, pinching off small pieces like with tweezers. The first few days of life, owls need to be fed with muscle fibers alone, and quail breast fillets are best suited for this purpose. When the owls begin to open their eyes, you can gradually start feeding pieces of meat with a small amount of wool, fluff and small, not hard bones. To begin with, you can feed the owlet a quail neck cut into pieces, and then be sure to wait for the owlet to drop the pellet. This should happen within six to eight hours of feeding the first meal with solids. During this period, you need to continue to give only muscle fibers. If there are no pellets during the day, you can give another quail neck or a similar small amount of small, not sharp bones and wool or fluff, and wait again. If the pellet does not appear for the second time, it is necessary for another two or three days not to give food with solid particles, to feed only soft ones. During this time, the owlet will grow up and his body should begin to cope with the removal of undigested particles to the outside.

The same rule applies to weakened owlets who, for some reason, lag behind in development. Recently, there was a case when people who had never fed owls undertook to feed the owls. Newborn owlets were fed too infrequently and insufficiently nutritious food, which soon led to intestinal atony in one of them. Then the weakened owlets began to be fed with chickens cut into pieces - along with bones and fluff. Two of the four owls were severely retarded in development, and one also had characteristic fractures of both legs and wings, which happen when the chicks are clumsily picked up, lifting by the limbs for fear of crushing. The organisms of these babies could not cope with the formation of the pellet, and although the people who fed them saw that there were no pellets, they continued to give pieces of chicken with bones and fluff, believing that maybe the bones were being digested. As a result, weakened babies died, painfully trying to burp the bones accumulated in their bellies - the first at the age of 7 days, the second at 10. The third baby also began to lag behind in development, fell ill with rickets, but still he was larger and stronger and after a while pushed out the accumulated in the stomach a lump of bones and chicken down. And only one of the four developed normally, perhaps because initially he received more food and this allowed his body to cope with the test.

When should one start feeding "normal owl food"? The rule is this: if the owlet does not lie, but sits confidently, actively tries to swallow his fingers when they touch the beak, if his eyes have already begun to open, you can give a quail neck and wait for the first guess. This is like an indicator of whether the owlet's body is ready for coarser food.
Rougher food is newborn mice, minced quail, ground together with bones (tubular bones must first be removed so that sharp fragments do not form!), adult mice cut into pieces. A little later, you can start giving pieces of day-old chickens - there are fewer nutrients in such feed, and there are a lot of bones and fluff.
At the age of one month, the owlet should already receive ordinary owl food, that is, for example, owl owls are able to swallow small mice whole.
(Of course, we are not talking about feeding owls with live animals - as well as adult owls kept in captivity.)

Do I need to drink water?

Owlets need to get enough fluids so that their kidneys can successfully remove harmful substances formed during the life of the body. You need to water the owls carefully so that the owlet does not inhale the liquid. You can give water drop by drop from a pipette on the side of the beak, but the easiest way is to dip pieces of food in water before feeding them.

What about vitamins?

When feeding an owlet with quality food, such as meat of domestic quail, additional vitamin preparations are not required. It must be remembered that synthetic vitamins are easy to overdose, and an overdose of vitamins is more dangerous than their lack.
As a natural source of vitamins, it can be recommended to feed raw chicken liver to owlets once a day. This is quite enough to maintain balance, synthetic vitamins for the prevention of beriberi do not need to be used.

Since a growing body requires a lot of calcium, it is recommended to use the Calcium-Sandoz drink as drinking water. Tablets for the preparation of this drink are sold in a human pharmacy. They must be diluted at the rate of a quarter tablet per 100 ml of water, and of course you need to wait until the gas comes out. You can start giving your owlet this drink in place of regular water from a week old until its plumage is fully formed.
It is very important for a growing owlet to receive a sufficient amount of ultraviolet light every day, because under its influence the body produces vitamin D, which promotes the absorption of calcium. It is best to provide the owlet with a safe stay in sunny penumbra, for example, the “nest” should be covered with two or three layers of cotton tulle and in this form you can sunbathe the owlets for two to three hours a day. Of course, you need to remember that owls should not be left unattended on a balcony or in a personal plot. But I will write a separate article about security.

And remember that foster owlets should not be released into the wild! They cannot be released even if they were "trained to hunt" at home, that is, they were baited on live mice. Anyway, in nature, such owls have no chance to survive and adapt to a normal life.
So please don't feed the owls with live animals, don't teach them to kill, they don't need it, and this is unnecessary cruelty.

I wish good luck to all bird rescuers and health to your pupils!

Long-eared Owl Breeding

Long-eared Owl's current is regular calls alternating with a zigzag flight from tree to tree. Nuptial flight is accompanied by flapping of wings, which drop sharply and converge below. The call of the male is a leisurely two-syllable low call "goo-goo", repeated every five seconds.

In the spring it is often possible to hear the calling signals of two males at once. Something like antiphonal singing is obtained, when the call of one male seems to be answered by the second. Moreover, the birds are clearly encouraging each other. This is not difficult to verify by imitating their cry. However, unlike a duet song, inconsistency and loss of rhythm are possible here. A real duet song is heard only at the height of the current. It is a repetition of a certain combination of sounds "u-gu-guu", in which the first sound ("uu")> somewhat nasal and not so low, is made by the female. The second part of the song (deaf "gu-guu") belongs to the male. In general, one duet song sounds for about four seconds, then a two-second break follows, and the screams are repeated in the same sequence.

During the nesting period, other sounds reproduced by adult birds can be heard. Worried at the nest and attacking the enemy, both parents click their beaks, and the female also belligerently shouts "wak-kuak-kuak ...". Excited male sometimes wombly and monosyllabic "gurgles". A single signal (a shortened calling cry) is emitted by adult owls when approaching a nest or fledglings.
For nesting, the long-eared owl most often uses the old buildings of corvids. However, she often takes away new nests from crows. The height of the dwelling can be insignificant - only two or four meters, and very significant - up to twenty-five meters. When choosing a nest, preference is given to structures located on evergreen trees - pines or spruces, and especially those located near the trunk itself. On hardwoods, owls are most attracted to closed magpie nests. Owls sometimes modernize the magpie dwelling somewhat - they expand its notch and partially dismantle the roof.

A rook's nest is also convenient for a long-eared owl, especially one with another nest built on top. In addition to the buildings of corvids, the long-eared owl also occupies the nests of predators - honey buzzard, buzzard, black kite, hawk buzzard and others. Cases of nesting in half-hollows and hollows are not uncommon. It happens that the same nest building is used by owls for two years in a row. In the steppe regions, chicks are sometimes hatched right on the ground, on a primitive lining of small bitch blades of grass and owl feathers. In hungry years, some birds do not breed, while in "mouse" years, repeated breeding of chicks is possible.

When the snow melts early, the long-eared owl starts laying eggs already in the first days of April, and in the south of the range - in March. In late spring, reproduction is somewhat delayed and fresh clutches are found until the end of May. Such plasticity of nesting behavior leads to the fact that, in general, the breeding period of this owl turns out to be significantly extended. A complete clutch contains 4-5, often 6-7 and even 9 eggs, rarely 10. The eggs are white, ellipsoidal in shape, common for owls, their average size is 41.4x33.3 mm. Newly laid eggs weigh 27-29grams. Egg laying occurs overnight. The female incubates. The duration of incubation, apparently, ranges from 25 to 28, and sometimes up to 30 days. It is noteworthy that eggs from the same clutch are sometimes incubated for a different number of days. We have repeatedly noted the simultaneous hatching of two or even three chicks in clutches, where incubation really began after the appearance of the first egg in the nest. If we take into account the intervals in oviposition, up to two days, then the difference in the duration of incubation of individual eggs will be very significant.

Natural waste in a long-eared owl's nest is often large. Usually one or two eggs turn out to be talkers or with a dead embryo. In addition, some chicks die in the first days of life. In the end, at best, two-thirds of the chicks survive to the age of one month.

A newborn owlet weighs about 20 grams and is covered with white, relatively thin down, through which pinkish skin is visible. Eyes and ear holes are closed, and he himself seems extremely helpless. However, it is worth touching the chick, as he immediately raises his head and shakes it in search of the food he has brought. Left alone, the owlet quickly cools down and begins to squeak. On the fifth night, the owlet's weight doubles and he begins to see. In many chicks, the egg tooth falls off at this age. Week-old chicks are already making attempts to get up, itching, and when hungry, they make quiet rattling sounds. On the back, neck and shoulders of the owls, by this time, the stumps of the feathers of the second nestling plumage are already opening.

When the oldest chick is 9-10 days old, the female begins to fly out together with the male to search for food. In anticipation of their parents, the owlets sit in a dense pile, warming each other. The chick "pyramid" is built far from randomly. Usually the older chick sits in the center, and its head always rises above the "pile of bodies". The rest of the owlets huddle with their backs to him. The smallest chicks and eggs are at the bottom.

At the age of two weeks, the weight of an owlet almost increases tenfold, and on the sixteenth night it exceeds two hundred grams. When you put a finger on a chick, it hisses menacingly and snaps its beak, and if you pick it up, it desperately resists and screeches, giving a distress signal. Observations made by NB Belsky in Moscow on the territory of the Main Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, where about a dozen pairs of long-eared owls regularly hatched chicks, showed that by twenty-four to twenty-five days, the growth of owls basically ends. It is from this time that they become very enterprising: either they “hunt” for an imaginary victim in the nest, which they resemble kittens, then they reach for a branch above the nest, then they go to the edge of the nest and begin to intensively flap their wings, dispersing fluffs in the wind. And a week later, barely able to flutter to the next branch, they leave the nest.

At this age, owls are not capable of long-term flight, although their main wing feathers already reach a length of seventy to one hundred and thirty millimeters. And only about a month later, namely by the fiftieth to fifty-fifth day, the development of the plumage of the wings and tail of young birds is more or less completed, and in flight they are no longer easy to distinguish from adults. In the last decade before the chicks fly out, the parents feed them especially intensively.

During the night, adult owls manage to bring twelve to fifteen voles, that is, at least two hundred grams of food. As R. A. Semenov, who studied the growth and development of chicks of this species in the forest-steppe of the Trans-Urals, established, for every five grams of feed, owlets add a gram of weight. It would seem that they get a lot of food, but the chicks are almost always ready to eat more and more. This can be judged by their antics and impatient shifting from foot to foot, most noticeable at the moment of the appearance of parents. Begging for food is constantly accompanied by a hoarse squeak, by the way, very similar to the begging voices of tawny owl chicks, although higher in tone. By the time of departure, this sound is converted into a high and shrill whistle. Compared to owl chicks, long-eared owl chicks call frequently.

Calling cries of chicks are usually heard already in the evening. Younger owlets begin to scream earlier than older ones, who also give their voice less often. B. S. Boronetsky calculated that in two or three hours the chicks reproduce their calling cry a thousand, or even two thousand times. It is interesting that the noisiest fledgling often takes the role of leader when the brood moves. More often, calling to each other, young owls roam along the forest edges. Since August, migrations gradually acquire the character of directed movement. This is how the flight begins. The flight of a long-eared owl is never intense and stretches for almost three months. Whether the broods disintegrate before departure or whether the groups encountered on migration represent united families is still unknown.