Hawk Owl

Hawk Owl 

(Surnia ulula), a bird of the order Strigiformes. The body length is 36–41 cm, and the weight, 250–360 g. The females are larger than the males. The head is relatively small, and the facial disk is incomplete. The wings are long and pointed, the long tail is sharply graduated, and the tarsometatarsi and toes are densely feathered. The plumage is brown, with white spots on the upper parts; the underparts are light, with dark transverse stripes, as in hawks (hence the name). The bill is yellow.

The hawk owl is distributed in northern Europe, Asia, and North America. In the USSR it is found in the forest zone as far east as Kamchatka and Sakhalin and in the spruce forests of the Tien-Shan. It is either sedentary, or it wanders in the winter. It inhabits tall-trunked forests. It nests in tree hollows or on the tops of broken trunks, or it occupies the nests of other birds. The clutch usually contains three or four eggs, and in years when food is abundant it contains as many as seven to nine. The hawk owl hunts in the morning and the evening for rodents, more rarely for birds.