Video recorded by Ahto Täpsi
Photo Arne Ader
Translation Liis
In our neighbourhood pygmy owls have become more active in evenings. There were at least three of them on Wednesday making themselves heard in the village.
Pygmy owl; Eurasian pygmy owl Värbkakk Glaucidium passerinum
Pygmy owls occur widely in all of Estonia but they are scarce. It might be said that they are birds who set store on ecologically valuable areas. Their numbers are estimated at around a thousand breeding pairs.
Pygmy owls look like owl chicks, size about as a starling, but their plumage and the shape of head and body make them seem stockier. Despite their small size, as birds of prey they pose a serious threat to smaller passerines. The body length of even larger individuals does not reach 20 centimetres, the wing span is nearly twice the body length, weight only between 50 and 70 grams. In winter they catch small rodents or move close to bird feeding places where they hunt passerines even in flight.
The pairs started mating already in winter but they lay the first egg only in April, in an old woodpecker nest or some natural tree hollow. In young forests we will almost never meet pygmy owls nesting: they prefer a mixed spruce forest or pine forests, always older ones, but these become regrettably fewer by each year. If any of our readers should photograph the chicks of a pygmy owl or a nest, and would send this material to us, we can continue the pygmy owl story.
Pygmy owl
Pygmy owl observations: LINK
