Eurasian eagle-owl
The Eurasian eagle-owl ("Bubo bubo") is a species of eagle-owl that resides in much of Eurasia. It is also called the European eagle-owl and in Europe, it is occasionally abbreviated to just eagle-owl. It is one of the largest species of owl, and females can grow to a total length of 75 cm (30 in), with a wingspan of 188 cm (6 ft 2 in), males being slightly smaller. This bird has distinctive ear tufts, with upper parts that are mottled with darker blackish colouring and tawny. The wings and tail are barred. The underparts are a variably hued buff, streaked with darker colour. The facial disc is poorly developed and the orange eyes are distinctive.
Dietary biology of the Eurasian eagle-owl
A very large balance of the prey range can also be comprised by birds and other prey including reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects and other invertebrates are seemingly taken whenever they are available. All told, well more than 600 different species have been identified as prey of Eurasian eagle-owls. Their diet includes basically all the same prey as all sympatric diurnal raptors in the genera "Buteo", "Aquila" and "Haliaeetus". The total number of prey species may even surpass that of the great horned owl and may well be the greatest of any raptorial bird on the Eurasian continent. Among five segments of Europe the average prey diversity per region was 63 species, a higher number than any of the other 40 raptorial bird species studied there. The mean mass of prey per study has varied from as little as , near the now former Aral Sea in Turkmenistan with the Turkmen jerboa ("Jaculus turkmenicus") being the primary prey species, to , in Spain with the European rabbit being the primary prey species. Remarkably, in northern Spain, where the rabbit is now extirpated (as was the eagle-owl for a time in the 20th century), the average weight of prey can dip as low as . In comparison, the lightest mean prey mass in dietary studies of the great horned owl was while the highest was .