The Eurasian eagle-owl is one of the largest owls in the world. An adult weighs about 3 to 9 pounds, and when it spreads its wings, they measure about 5 to 6 feet from tip to tip.
An eagle-owl is mostly brown, black and buff, with a white throat, and it has orange eyes and feathery ear tufts on its head. Its legs are covered in feathers.
Eagle-owls live in many places, from conifer forests to warm deserts. They prefer rocky places such as cliffs and ravines. They also prefer to hunt in open areas. They usually stay in the same area all year.
Eagle-owls are mostly active in the first few hours after sunset and the last few hours before sunrise. They use keen eyesight and hearing to find prey at night. The feathers around the face form a disk that helps direct sound to the ears. The wings make very little noise, so an eagle-owl can fly quietly.
Eagle-owls eat many kinds of animals, from beetles to fawns. They eat mammals such as voles and rats, and they also eat birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish.
An eagle-owl coughs up an owl pellet: a small ball of hair, feathers and bones it could not digest.
The IUCN Red List lists the Eurasian eagle-owl as Least Concern, as of November 2026. In Europe, laws that protect eagle-owls and programs that bring them back have helped their numbers recover, as of November 2026.
Eagle-owls often pair up for life. They do not build a nest. They use ledges, caves, and the old nests of other large birds. A pair has one to four eggs at a time. The female sits on the eggs, and the male brings food to the nest. Young eagle-owls hatch white and fluffy, and they feed themselves at the nest at about three weeks and can fly by about seven weeks old.
Words to know
- ravines: narrow valleys
- pellet: coughed-up ball
- amphibians: frogs and newts
