About Britain - About Little Owl & Nature Links

Hello! Did you know that I am a type of owl called "Little Owl"? You can read all about Little Owls on this page.

Nature

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Young People's Trust for the Environment
The Young People's Trust for the Environment is a charity which aims to encourage young people's understanding of the environment and the need for sustainability.

BBC - children's zone
Amazing animals, creature close-up, features, fun & games, web post-cards.

Castle Explorer
There are currently over 180 castles featured on this site plus all about the history of castles in Britain.

Little Owl
Athene noctua

Little owls are the smallest British owl. Introduced to Britain from Holland in 1889, it was then known as the 'fierce little foreigner'. As its Latin name implies, the owl was associated with the Greek goddess Athene. She was originally a goddess of war but was also worshipped as the goddess of the arts of peace and goddess of intelligence. Athene took the owl as her emblem, and its image was stamped on several silver coins.

The females are slightly larger than the males neither are much larger than a blackbird.

Little owls have bright yellow eyes and their feathers are grey-brown flecked with white.

Distributed throughout England and the North and South Eastern parts of Wales, they also have a wide distribution across the world, mostly in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia Minor.

They prefer such habitats as farmland with hedges, ruins and other suitable nesting and hiding places. Little owls also occupy woodland, fields, coastal areas and semi-desert areas.
They nest in tree holes, pollarded willows, walls of old buildings, rabbit burrows and cliff holes. The female lays 3-5 eggs in early May and incubates the eggs for 29 days. Only the male feeds the chicks at first, but later the female helps. After 26 days, the chicks leave the nest.

Little owls are mostly crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk), but also hunt during the day. They feed on a wide variety of prey - mostly small mammals.

The main call is a ringing kiew, kiew, repeated every few seconds. The second is a rapidly repeated, yelping wherrow. Little owls use a variety of chattering notes at the nest and in particular during the breeding season a loud hoo-oo note.