Skip to content
The UK Bird Atlas

Tawny Owl (Strix aluco)Where and when to see it in the UK

Resident · reporting peaks February to March · Owls · BOU category AF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Tawny Owl (Strix aluco)
Chrumps, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Tawny Owl: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Tawny Owl has been recorded in 2,096 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (71%) in records to 2026. Resident in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in February to March.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
8% to 100%
Moderate
2% to 8%
Low
under 2%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 83%2%Very high
February 95%2%Very high
March 86%2%Very high
April 77%1%Very high
May 100%2%Very high
June 79%1%Very high
July 55%1%Very high
August 71%1%Very high
September 89%2%Very high
October 94%2%Very high
November 94%2%Very high
December 76%1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in February

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
NC80Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NG60Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH30Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH64Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH80Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH81Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH82Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NH92Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NJ01Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NJ11Moray, Scotland100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.