BTO Owl Appeal

Woodland and Gardens - Tawny Owls

Tawny Owls patrol woodland glades and wooded suburbs, hunting for small mammals and roosting birds. We think that Tawny Owl numbers may have fallen by a third since 1994 (BBWC - TO) which suggests a dramatic change – but our current surveys are not well suited to nocturnal species.

• Just how do we count birds we cannot see? We want to try out different methods of surveying Tawny Owls to see which one works best and should be used in future surveys.
• We know that Tawny Owls are noisy in the autumn, with less activity in the late spring, when most BTO survey work takes place. We want to work with Garden BirdWatchers across the country to find out when it is best to count them.
• We want to provide the first proper measure of Tawny Owl population change: In 1989, 2,500 standardised counts were made throughout Britain and we would like to organise a survey to check out how much has really changed in the last fifteen years.