Raptor World, The Scottish Deer Centre, Bow Of Fife, Cupar KY15 4NQ
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Eurasian Eagle Owl
The largest species of owl in the world, the Eurasian Eagle Owl is easily identified by its large size, prominent “tufts” on the top of its head and brightly coloured orange eyes. The distinctive “tufts” on the top of their head are used to communicate mood and to increase their camouflage, by breaking up their outline. The Eurasian Eagle Owl is crepuscular, meaning it primarily hunts at dawn and dusk. Focusing on rodents and small mammals, they will also catch other birds in the air and the largest prey they have been known to catch is small deer.
Eurasian kestrel
The Eurasian Kestrel is easily distinguished when in flight as it hovers with a rapid wingbeat and a fanned out tail. As hovering is the kestrels primary hunting technique, the wing shape is adapted slightly from the rest of the falcon family to allow rapid wingbeat, instead of high speed. Their extended range of colour vision (into the ultra-violet range) allows them to track their prey by their urine trails, which glow under ultra-violet, and can enable them to identify nest areas. Although it can be seen in a variety of environments the best place to spot them is at the sides of roads, motorways and airports.
Long-Eared Owl
The Long-eared Owl is associated with coniferous woodland and tall scrubby habitats during the breeding season, favouring sites where dense nesting cover is located close to open areas that are used for hunting. Although widely distributed across Britain and Ireland, the Long-eared Owl remains a scarce breeding species and one that is easy to overlook. The species appears to be more abundant in Ireland than it is within Britain, perhaps because of reduced competition Tawny Owl, which is absent from Ireland.
Lanner Falcon
Lanner Falcons are one of the few species of birds of prey that have an increasing population in Africa where they are mostly found, but in Europe they are now an endangered species with less than 1700 individuals remaining. This is mostly due to loss of habitat, increasing agriculture and an increasing number of wind turbines. They are capable of reaching speeds up to 140mph, and use this high speed to catch and kill their prey, which consists of small and medium sized birds, but will take insects, rodents and carrion when food is scarce.
Saker Falcon
Saker Falcon is the second largest falcon in the world and also extremely powerful. They are a very hardy bird as they can thrive in both the desert heat and high up in the cold Altai Mountains. Saker’s are one of the few falcons that actively hunt ground mammals, and will easily take anything up to the size of a hare. They also fly much lower than other falcons, and tend to pursue prey horizontality, rather than diving down from above. Due to this flight style, they often fall victim to power lines and wind turbines.
Burrowing Owl
The Burrowing owl is a small, charismatic species of owl known for its unique behavior of nesting underground in burrows. With a compact, stocky body and long legs, it stands out among owls for its upright posture. Its plumage features a mix of brown, white, and speckled patterns, providing excellent camouflage in its natural habitat.
Tawny Owl
The most common species of owl in the UK, with an estimated 50,000 mature pairs. The Tawny Owl hunts on silent wings, and although it is a nocturnal species it will sometimes be seen during daylight hours.The variety of colours of the owls plumage help it to be perfectly camouflaged when sitting in a tree. The distinctive shape of the owls face, or ‘facial disk’, helps to gather and focus sound. This allows them to detect sounds imperceptible to the human ear, such as the heartbeat of a mouse.
Snowy Owl
The only owl to be found in the arctic circle, the Snowy Owl has very distinctive colours that allow it to be camouflaged in the Arctic Circle. Snowy Owls primarily perch and nest on the ground, and so will often have to face off to larger ground predators. For this reason snowy owls tend to be very aggressive, females in particular. Snowy owls are an opportunistic hunter, so their diet mostly consists of small rodents and the chicks of ground nesting birds (particularly Ptarmigan). They can catch much larger prey, up to hares and geese.
Lugger Falcon
The Lugger is a medium sized falcon that used to be widespread and
numerous across a great deal of Asia. But in recent decades it has
declined severely through a combination of man made factors.
Strident efforts are being made not only to halt the decline, but plans
are in place to eventually reintroduce the species to suitable areas.