Ural owl
The Ural owl is a fairly distinctive looking bird but can be confused for other owls, especially with others in the "Strix" genus. The tawny owl is much smaller with a conspicuously shorter tail and a relatively larger head. The tawny species, which occurs variously in grey, brown and red morphs, has underparts with dark shaft-streaks and crossbars, as opposed to the heavy but straight streaking of the Ural owl. The great grey owl is larger than the Ural owl with a huge head and relatively even smaller yellow eyes while their facial disc has strong concentric lines. In colour, the great grey is distinctly more solidly uniform and somewhat dark greyish than the Ural owl. An unlikely species to mistake a Ural owl is the Eurasian eagle-owl ("Bubo bubo") which is much larger (by a considerable margin the heaviest and longest winged owl in Europe) with prominent ear tufts, a squarish (not rounded) head shape and orange eyes as well as with distinctly different markings. Long-eared owls ("Asio otus") are much smaller and slimmer, with prominent ear-tufts, orange eyes and more prominent dark markings. More similar than any in Europe, the closely related Père David's owl does not occur in the same range as (other?) Ural owls but is darker in plumage, also with a facial disc marked with darker concentric lines. Due to its partially diurnal behaviour during warmer months, some authors consider it confusable with the very different looking (but similarly largish and long-tailed) northern goshawk ("Accipiter gentilis").