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Tawny Owls are medium-sized, powerful owls. Their plumage is highly cryptic. The two sexes look alike, but females tend to be about 5% taller and 25% heavier than males. Males tend to be on average paler and more heavily streaked than females. The facial mask of Tawny Owls, which has a dark-grey outer edge, looks a bit like a pair of goggles because the two halves are separated by "V"-shaped plumage down the forehead to the bill, with a dark stripe down its middle. There are two morphologies, grey to grey-brown and rufous. While much of the plumage is silvery-grey with darker grey streaking, the rest can be either tinged brown, especially on chest and wing coverts (grey to grey-brown morphology) or rufous (facial mask; parts of the front, back and wing coverts - rufous morphology). The wing coverts show prominent bars of conspicuous silvery-grey and darker grey spots. The irises are dark-brown. The bill, legs and feet are grey. Fledgling young are off-white to light-grey with light vermiculation, some grey barring on the wing coverts and buff tints on their flight feathers.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Tawny Owl is available HERE .

Tawny Owls are a strictly sedentary species. Depending on authority, there are some 10-15 extant races. Their overall distribution ranges from north-western Africa, Iberia, Britain (but not Ireland) and Scandinavia through Europe into southern central Russia. Their range extends along the near-coastal parts of Asia Minor, the eastern coastal fringe of the Mediterranean Sea and all around the Black Sea, to the Caucasus and on along the southern coastline of the Caspian Sea. There are more, spatially separated populations in southern central to eastern Asia (for details refer to a field guide). They are not found northward of about 60-62 degrees geographical latitude.

In Europe there are two races. Nominate race "aluco" populates northern/central and eastern Europe. In western Europe, including England/Wales/Scotland, race "sylvatica" is found. These two races are present essentially in all of Europe, except Ireland, northern/central Scandinavia, north-western/northern European Russia and the lower Volga Basin.

Tawny Owls have a preference for forest, parkland or wooded farmland, in particular old-growth forest with large, old trees for nesting in hollows. They are very tolerant to the presence of humans.

Race "aluco"