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Eurasian Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium passerinum)

Despite its status as Europe’s smallest owl, no bigger than a large finch, the Pygmy Owl shares the northern coniferous forest zone, harsh winters and all, with several of the larger species. One way it survives is to cache food, and Pygmy Owls have been known to have 200 items stored away at any one time, in holes or nest boxes. Most of these are collected in the autumn, and apparently cold, dry weather in November and early December is the stimulus for building up large supplies.

The Pygmy Owl is an agile hunter and besides feeding on voles and other small mammals, as so many owls do, it also catches a substantial number of birds. In the breeding season, for example, researchers found that birds constituted about 40% of the diet, and that figure probably rises in the winter. These predators have different ways of catching mammals and birds. The former are captured by sitting out in the open on a high perch, and then flying down to pounce on what is seen. Birds, on the other hand, are ambushed, the owl flying out from a hidden position and often catching its prey on the wing. Food is usually eaten piecemeal, and the head typically bitten off first.

Most captured birds are small, usually no bigger than a finch, but sometimes bumper strikes are made, for example against woodpeckers. This is somewhat ironic, because the Pygmy Owl relies upon woodpeckers, especially Great Spotted, Grey-headed and Three-toed Woodpeckers, to make a nesting or caching hole. Small holes like these are safe from most nest-predators, including pine martens.

A Pygmy Owl attracts a mate by its advertising song, a clear, fluty whistle. The relationship between members of a pair can be fierce, with much chasing and aggression at first. Also, later in the season, a female Pygmy Owl sometimes attacks its mate to stimulate it to go out hunting.