A lovely summer evening and this Little Owl looks like the world’s grumpiest hunter - 17 July 2024

In this video, it’s a summer evening and we are in a field on the edge of a grouse moor in the West Yorkshire Pennines.
The bird that is staring at us is a Little Owl - it hasn’t taken its eyes of us in several minutes. Its scientific name is Athene noctua.
This Little Owl been on a fencepost, but it’s now dropped down to the ground. Sometimes the Little Owls will chase prey on the ground.
This bird isn’t native to the UK as it was only introduced here in the 18th Century. However, since then it has become a year-round resident across most of England - it remains rare in Scotland and Wales and is absent from Ireland. There are only around about 6000 pairs of breeding birds in the UK, so this isn’t a commonly sighted species.
It is a daylight owl and it can often be seen perching on a tree branch, telegraph pole or a rock.
Around here the Little Owls really seems to love standing on the top of telegraph poles.
The Little Owls also seem to like standing on the steps on the top of the telegraph poles too.
The Little Owl has fabulous yellow eyes, rounded wings and flies with a fast wing-beat. It also has a slightly bouncing flight.
The Little Owl has a large head, prominent eyes and white eyebrows. This means that it often looks to have a perpetual frown.
The Little Owl prefers habitats such as farmland, woodland fringes, grassland and even deserts.
On the whole it feeds on earthworms, insects and other invertebrates, as well as amphibians, reptiles and even small mammals.
It is extremely rare for them to take young birds.
Despite persecution in the past, they don’t take chicks from grouse moors.
These owls nest in cavities and lay 3 to 5 eggs in the spring. The female sits on the eggs, while the male brings food for her and the newly hatched young. As the chicks grow, both parents bring them food, until they leave the nest at around 7 weeks old. They can fly a week or two later.
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