Understanding Tawney owl behaviour

Fairly sure that is pair bonding, feeding would involve the parent bird ripping bits off the prey to feed to a youngster and probably begging behaviour, but I'm a little confused - are these captive birds? it just a very odd to see 2 Tawny Owls out in such an exposed set up - even when owlets branch it tends to be a tree and they are hard to see.

So they are snogging then? 

Yes they're wild, they've recently taken to perching and roosting on that cable during the day as it's quite a secluded part of the house, If it wasn't for me doing some building work they wouldn't see a human there all day. It was me that loosened the cable off they're on.

I can only assume they just wanted a change of scenery or went there to shelter from the wind and got into the habit.

I've seen one there at all times during the day, but since I set the camera up it's caught them mainly in the morning and evening. Daytime they take to a huge Sycamore tree which is just by the side there. I can go under the tree and if they're low down (which they seem to prefer) they fly higher up and just watch me.

The female seems more jittery, she will watch wide eyed and fly first, the male is more laid back.

They took to roosting in an open building (with roof on) last year and struggle for cover in Winter as everything loses it's leaves apart from one sizeable Laurel bush on someone's drive, so they huddle in that.

We've only been here since last July, they had no young back then and I haven't seen any this year either.

Although the female (I think) went missing (or could have been well hidden) for about two months this Summer. Maybe she was looking after an owlet and it died or got killed, I don't know. There are Kestrels about, the owls took other birds chicks, maybe they had theirs taken too. Dog eat dog World.

Have only seen her back just recently.

I think maybe I need to be making a nesting box and fixing it higher up above that cable to help them.

I'm tempted to say bonding as well, but only after doing a search on the web using trusted sites, not any old site.

One person I do trust, is Robert E Fuller, he's one person worth searching through his YouTube channel for similar behaviour, and the link below takes you to one of his videos of a pair of tawny owls he observes. Its worth watching his video: "Two Tawny Owls Tenderly Preening"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV6YGd7CPuM

Robert E Fuller Website

Robert E Fuller Wikipedia Info

As a bit of an answer/update to this they are/were 'Grey phase' Tawnys and the behaviour is known as 'Allo preening'.
A recent book to read on them is Jeff Martins.
Sorry, but I didn't think much to Robert E Fuller, he seems to feature pics and footage to only try and further his career.

Came across this old thread while looking for info about tawny fledglings, and just wondered if you still have these wonderful owl sightings? Lovely photos.

We've got fledglings somewhere out there at the moment, and just wondered if the constant calling is normal or we just haven't noticed it before, or are they nor being fed?

Yes they're still very much with us and hopefully forever if they get replaced when they die. I'm afraid I don't know much more now than I did back then and that the book mentioned will tell you more, but it's not a light read.

I've never seen 'ours' with young, so don't know if they've raised any or where they do it. As soon as they're ready they're pushed away though to go and find their own hunting ground. If they don't find anywhere they starve.

One more thing though, and that is I would be very careful near them when they have young, although rare they have been known to attack people who are near the nest at this time. Being as they are - silent killers, you won't hear them coming and they attack from behind by digging their talons into the front of human faces leading to the loss of an eye in some cases.

Thanks for replying. Great to hear they are still around.

We moved somewhere more rural in the past few years and we love seeing and hearing tawny owls and barn owls. They nest in the fields surrounding us, but pass through the garden at times.

I was once swooped at by a short eared owl one evening as a kid, luckily no contact was made!

• Enjoy your owls and thanks again for sharing the lovely photos. I have nothing to show but a blurry mess so far in my pictures!