Tawny Owl

Strix aluco

The classic 'twit-twoo' is actually two birds talking. Your message is a duet.

Population: approx. 1.58–2.34 million mature individuals globally (IUCN, 2024 global reassessment)
Habitat: deciduous and mixed woodland, mature conifer plantations, forest, parkland, and wooded urban areas
Fun fact: The Tawny Owl's famous "tu-whit, tu-who" call is actually a duet between two birds — the female gives the sharp "kee-wick" and the male answers with the quavering "hoo-hoo-oo" — and its asymmetrically placed ears give it directional hearing about ten times more acute than a human's, letting it hunt entirely by sound on a pitch-dark, overcast night.
Range: temperate Eurasia, from Great Britain and western/southern Europe east to western Siberia, south to North Africa (Maghreb population, currently still lumped as S. a. mauritanica by BirdLife/IUCN taxonomy) and east through the northern Middle East to the western Himalayas
Diet: small mammals (especially woodland rodents), also rabbits, birds, earthworms, and beetles
Size: 0.415 m
Wingspan: 0.93 m
Lifespan: 18 years

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