Sergey Dereliev

The species occurs in various semi-open habitats, from steppes and stony semi-desert to farmland and open woodland, human settlements, sometimes extending to boreal and tropical areas (Holt et al. 2020). Its breeding range covers big parts of Eurasia (from Portugal to the Russian Far East), N & NE Africa, and Middle East. In Europe, it is patchily distributed in C Europe and European Russia, absent in N Europe; UK population is introduced (Keller et al. 2020).

All populations are resident. However, long-distance dispersal movements are rarely recorded.

Its population trend in Europe is stable. Evaluated as “Least Concern” (BirdLife International 2021).

Season of assessment

B

Population trendUnknown
Population size
(min-max, best estimate)		1150000-2140000,1560000
Red List categoryLC
Franks, S., Fiedler, W., Arizaga, J., Jiguet, F., Nikolov, B., van der Jeugd, Ambrosini, R, Aizpurua, O., Bairlein, F., Clark, J., Fattorini, N, Hammond, M., Higgins, D, Levering, H., Skellorn, W., Spina, F, Thorup, K. Walker, J., Woodward, I. and Baillie, S.R. (1) (2022) Online Atlas of the movements of European bird populations. https://migrationatlas.org EURING/CMS (1) Principal investigator
Map

Overall Connectivity for Little Owl

Populations in Europe are largely sedentary, the species moves only very short distances between seasons. Although the sample size of distant recoveries (>=50 km) is large, almost all long-distance movements are less than 250 km from the place of ringing (exceptionally up to 600 km and more). Usually no prevailing direction of dispersal has been detected.

Dataset involves mostly within-country movements and some short-distance movements across neighbouring countries. Crossings of alpine area (Italy – Switzerland) have also been recorded (Spina, Volponi, 2008).

Within Britain, the breeders from the N part of the range disperse longer distances compared to those from the S sites (Wernham et al. 2002).

Recoveries by Condition for Little Owl

Currently protected species in Europe. The number of encounters started building up after late 1970s, reaching its peak in 2015. Most encounters are obtained in W & C Europe (58 and 36% respectively). The encounters mainly come from May-Jun – ca. 62% (juveniles are big proportion of the birds ringed).

The encounters based on dead birds decreased markedly over time (from 76% pre-1960 to 18% after 1991), while those based on alive birds – largely increased (from ca. 20% to 81% respectively); the latter is mostly due to ringing encounters (mainly nestbox ringing). Unlike many other raptors, shooting was not so frequent as recovery condition in the past (from 9% of all cases pre-1960 to almost none afterwards). Traffic is among the currently important negative factors (5% of all cases).

Annual Movements for Little Owl

The dispersal stage is generally defined from Aug to Oct, but major dispersal movements are expected in Sep-Oct (Van Nieuwenhuyse et al. 2008). In Denmark, half of all juveniles under study (sample size 10) had dispersed by mid-Sep, and the remaining – by mid-Oct (Pedersen et al. 2013).

Most ringing data heavily concentrated in C & W Europe. Data from S Europe, which holds the species strongholds, are extremely scarce – very few from Iberian and Apennine Peninsulas and almost none from SE & E Europe; any long-distance movements are apparently lacking.

Connectivity by Month by Region for Little Owl

The species is highly philopatric and its movements are more or less restricted to the dispersal of juveniles. Post-breeding dispersal movements in juveniles take place from late summer to mid-autumn.

Similarly to other owl species, females disperse nearly twice as far as males. Juveniles disperse in random directions, most of them settle within 20 km of their natal area; some disperse over 50 km, and just 4–9% of all young disperse over 100 km (Van Nieuwenhuyse et al. 2008). Among the longest distances revealed by ringing encounters is a bird marked in Germany and recovered in S France (758 km) (Bairlein et al. 2014).

Boris Nikolov

References

Statistics Map
N records N individuals N recoveries
Mapped data*
Total available data
*Mapped data include only distant (>= 50 km) recoveries
References Map
2002 . The Migration Atlas: movements of the birds of Britain and Ireland. T. & A.D. Poyser, LondonEditor(s): Wernham, C.V., Toms, M.P., Marchant, J.H., Clark, J.A., Siriwardena, G.M., Baillie, S.R.
2020 . European Breeding Bird Atlas 2: Distribution, Abundance and Change. European Bird Census Council & Lynx Edicions, BarcelonaEditor(s): Keller, V., S. Herrando, P. Voříšek, et al.
Bairlein, F., Dierschke, J., Dierschke, V., Salewski, V., Geiter, O., Hüppop, K., Köppen, U., Fiedler, W. 2014 . Atlas des Vogelzugs: Ringfunde Deutscher Brut- und Gastvögel. AULA-Verlag, Wiebelsheim
BirdLife International 2021 . Species factsheet: Athene noctua. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 11/08/2021.
Holt, D. W., R. Berkley, C. Deppe, P. L. Enríquez, J. L. Petersen, J. L. Rangel Salazar, K. P. Segars, K. L. Wood, G. M. Kirwan, D. A. Christie, and J. S. Marks 2020 . Little Owl (Athene noctua), version 1.0. In Birds of the World Link to Article (DOI: https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.litowl1.01) Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA
Pedersen, D., Thorup, K., Sunde, P., Jacobsen, L. B. & Rahbek, C. 2013 . Post-fledging behaviour of juveniles in the Little Owl (Athene noctua). Ornis Fennica 90: 117–128
Spina, F., Volponi, S. 2008 . Atlante della Migrazione degli Uccelli in Italia. 2. Passeriformi. Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare, Instituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA), Tipografia SCR-Roma
Van Nieuwenhuyse, D., Génot, J.-C., Johnson, D. H. 2008 . The Little Owl, conservation, ecology and behavior of Athene noctua. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

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