Eurasian scops owl

Otus scops Today, 3 October

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

now leaving 11 days

leaving Bird summer visitor

The whole year

8 September – 14 October

the coastal calendar, shifted 14 days later for this region

Sitting the year outGetting readyYoung aboutYoung leaving

Where to look

Olive groves, parks and village squares; a single flute note repeated all night.

Worth knowing

The call is the reliable phenology marker on this coast: it starts within days of arrival and stops the moment the young leave, so the silence in late June is the brood finishing, not the birds going.

Look it up

photos, sightings and recordings, off this site

iNaturalist — photos and where people are seeing it Wikipedia — Otus scops xeno-canto — recordings of the call

Regions

where this species is on the list

Dalmatian coastKvarner and IstriaVelebit and the DinaridesSlavonia and the Pannonian plainTukhlia, Ukrainian Carpathians

Phase by phase

dates as they fall in the region chosen above

Phase	When	Length	What it means
away for the winter	15 October – 7 April	175 days	Not here at all. The birds are on the wintering grounds, thousands of kilometres south.
arriving	8 April – 23 April	16 days	Returning from the wintering grounds; the first birds are ahead of the peak.
courting	24 April – 23 May	30 days	Song, display, fighting, scent-marking — pairs forming or reaffirming.
on eggs	24 May – 14 June	22 days	Clutch laid and being incubated, or buried and left to the sun.
raising young	15 June – 8 July	24 days	Dependent young in the nest, den or burrow, being fed.
young have left	9 July – 7 September	61 days	Young out of the nest or den, but still fed and followed by the adults.
leaving	8 September – 14 October	37 days	Leaving for the wintering grounds; stragglers run weeks behind.

Other birds in this region

Barn swallowBlack storkCommon cuckooCommon nightingaleCommon ravenCommon swiftEuropean bee-eaterEuropean robinGreat spotted woodpeckerGreat titHoopoePygmy cormorantTawny owlWhite stork

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