Ü...üüüüüüh! The call of the pygmy owl is shrill and can be heard more than a kilometer away.
The vocal repertoire of the smallest native owl species, which is barely the size of a starling, is enormous. The shrill territorial song, with which the males secure up to 2.5 square kilometers of territory, quickly attracts the attention of other forest dwellers. Small birds, mice, amphibians and reptiles in particular need to be careful, as the pygmy owl loves to eat them. This skillful, crepuscular hunter needs near-natural mountain coniferous forest with good cover and open spaces for its surprise attacks and chases. When it catches prey, it plucks and depilates it before eating it in morsels or placing it in its food depot.
The barred owl's extensive grooming is striking - it likes to scratch, clean and shake its dark gray-brown feathers and the conspicuous tail, which is banded several times in white.
While it was still considered extremely rare in the early 1990s, the first breeding pairs were established in Wittgenstein in 1995. Today, the Central European population has recovered to around 5,000 breeding pairs.