The Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo) is Europe's largest owl, a powerful, thickset bird found as a resident across most of Sweden, Norway and Denmark outside the highest mountain areas. Body length runs 59–73 cm with a wingspan of 138–170 cm and a weight of 1,500–3,000 grams, with females noticeably larger than males. The plumage is a mottled brown with heavy black streaking, densest on the breast, over a paler belly, and the bird's unmistakable look comes from its large, prominent ear tufts and glowing orange-yellow eyes. In flight its broad, powerful wings give it an almost hawk-like silhouette.
The male's territorial call is a deep, booming "huu-hooo" that can carry several kilometres on a still night, heard most intensely from January to March as pairs establish territory; the female answers with a lighter, hoarser call. Eagle-owls build no real nest, laying their eggs directly on a sheltered rock ledge, in a crevice, or on the ground beneath an overhang, and have adapted to industrial sites, increasingly nesting in disused quarries and gravel pits. The female lays 2–4 eggs as early as late winter and incubates for just over a month while the male hunts, taking prey ranging from voles and hedgehogs to hares, rabbits, young foxes, and birds such as crows, gulls, ducks and other owls. Sweden's population, once nearly wiped out in the 20th century by persecution and pollutants, has recovered thanks to legal protection and captive-breeding releases to roughly 600–1,000 pairs, though the species remains listed as vulnerable.
Read about this species in Swedish →