page_title: Eurasian eagle-owl
section_title: Subspecies
hierarchical_section_title: Eurasian eagle-owl / Taxonomy / Subspecies
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Turkmenen-Uhu (Bubo bubo omissus) im Tierpark Berlin (Friedrichsfelde). Standort südwärts vom Affenhaus.
context_page_description: The Eurasian eagle-owl 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 the eagle-owl. It is one of the largest species of owl, and females can grow to a total length of 75 cm, with a wingspan of 188 cm, 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 not very visible and the orange eyes are distinctive.
  The Eurasian eagle-owl is one of the largest living species of owl as well as one of the most widely distributed. The Eurasian eagle-owl is found in many habitats but is mostly a bird of mountain regions, coniferous forests, steppes and other relatively remote places, and have occasionally been found near farmland and in park-like settings within European cities; in 2020, a brood of three chicks were raised by their mother on a large, well-foliaged planter on an apartment window in the city centre of Geel, Belgium.
context_section_description: B. b. bubo (Linnaeus, 1758) – Also known as the European eagle-owl, the nominate subspecies inhabits continental Europe from near the Arctic Circle in Norway, Sweden, Finland, the southern Kola Peninsula, and Arkhangelsk where it ranges north to about latitude 640 30' N., southward to the Baltic Sea, central Germany, to southeastern Belgium, eastern, central, and southern France to Italy and Sicily, and through Central and Southeastern Europe to Greece. It intergrades with B. b. ruthenus in northern Russia around the basin of the upper Mezen River and in the eastern vicinity of Gorki Leninskiye, Tambov and Voronezh, and intergrades with B. b. interpositus in northern Ukraine. This is a medium-sized race, measuring in wing chord length 435–480 mm (17.1–18.9 in) in males and 455–500 mm (17.9–19.7 in). In captive owls of this subspecies, the mean wingspan were 157 cm (5 ft 2 in) for males and 167.5 cm (5 ft 6 in) for females. The total bill length is 45 to 56 mm (1.8 to 2.2 in). Adult male European eagle-owls from Norway weigh 1.63 to 2.81 kg (3.6 to 6.2 lb), averaging 2.38 kg (5.2 lb), while females there weigh from 2.28 to 4.2 kg (5.0 to 9.3 lb), averaging 2.95 kg (6.5 lb). Unsurprisingly, adult owls from western Finland were about the same size, averaging 2.65 kg (5.8 lb). The subspecies seems to follow Bergmann’s rule in regards to body size decreasing closer to the Equator, as specimens from central Europe average 2.14 or 2.3 kg (4.7 or 5.1 lb) in body mass and those from Italy average about 2.01 kg (4.4 lb). The weight range for eagle-owls in Italy is 1.5 to 3 kg (3.3 to 6.6 lb). The nominate subspecies is perhaps the darkest and most richly coloured of eagle-owl subspecies. Many nominate birds are heavily overlaid with broad black streaking over the upper-parts, head and chest. While generally a brownish base-colour, many nominate owls can appear rich rufous, especially about the head, upper-back and wing primaries. The lower belly is usually a buff brown, as opposed to whitish or yellowish in several other subspecies. Birds seen from southern Italy and Sicily may show a tendency to be smaller than more northern birds and reportedly are duller, possessing paler ground coloration, and more narrow streaks, but museum specimens are often not hugely distinct from north Italian eagle-owls. In Scandinavia, some birds are so darkly plumaged as to give a blackish-brown impression with almost no paler colour showing.
  B. b. hispanus (Rothschild and Hartert, 1910) – Also known as the Spanish eagle-owl or the Iberian eagle-owl. This subspecies mainly occurs on the Iberian Peninsula, where it occupies a majority of Spain and scattered spots in Portugal. B. b. hispanus at least historically occurred in wooded areas of the Atlas Mountains in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, making it the only subspecies of Eurasian eagle-owl known to breed in Africa, but this population is thought to be extinct. This is a fairly small-bodied subspecies. In males, wing chord length can range from 400 to 450 mm (16 to 18 in) and in females from 445 to 485 mm (17.5 to 19.1 in). Wingspans in this subspecies can vary from 131 to 168 cm (4 ft 4 in to 5 ft 6 in), averaging about 154.1 cm (5 ft 1 in). Among standard measurements of B. b. hispanus, the tail is 229 to 310 mm (9.0 to 12.2 in), the total bill length is 38.9 to 54.3 mm (1.53 to 2.14 in) and the tarsus is 64.5 to 81 mm (2.54 to 3.19 in). Adult male B. b. hispanus from Spain weigh 1.22 to 1.9 kg (2.7 to 4.2 lb), averaging 1.63 kg (3.6 lb), while females weigh from 1.75 to 2.49 kg (3.9 to 5.5 lb), averaging 2.11 kg (4.7 lb). In terms of its life history, this may be the most extensively studied subspecies of eagle-owl. The Spanish eagle-owl is the most similar in plumage to the nominate subspecies amongst other subspecies, but tends to be a somewhat lighter, more greyish colour, with generally lighter streaking and a paler belly.
  B. b. ruthenus (Buturlin and Zhitkov, 1906)- May be also known as the eastern eagle-owl. This subspecies replaces the nominate in eastern Russia from about latitude 660 N. i
caption: B. b. omissus at Tierpark Berlin, Germany
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