Athene noctua
A small, fierce-looking owl, introduced to Britain in Victorian times.
Size: 22 cm | Habitat: Farmland & Countryside Birds | Season: All year
The UK's smallest owl, the little owl is a stocky, flat-headed bird with piercing yellow eyes and a permanently disgruntled expression. Introduced from continental Europe in the late 19th century, it is now well established across much of England and Wales.
Small and compact · flat, rounded head with no ear tufts · bright yellow eyes · pale spotting on brown upperparts · low, undulating flight
Unlike most owls, little owls are often active by day as well as at dusk, perching prominently on fence posts, barn roofs, and low branches around farmland. They nest in tree holes, old buildings, and quarry crevices.
The little owl was deliberately released in England in the 1870s and 1880s, and every wild little owl in Britain today is descended from those Victorian introductions.
The Little Owl (Athene noctua) is Britain's smallest owl, a stocky, flat-headed bird with piercing yellow eyes and a permanently fierce expression, often seen perched openly by day on fence posts and barn roofs.
Unlike Britain's native owls, the little owl has no natural history here at all — it was deliberately introduced from continental Europe in the 1870s and 1880s and is now well established across much of England and Wales, though it has never colonised Scotland or Ireland in any numbers.
Despite being non-native, little owl numbers have declined significantly in recent decades, a reminder that "introduced" species can still face genuine, worrying population pressures even without carrying a formal conservation status.
⚪ Conservation status: Not formally assessed (UK Birds of Conservation Concern 5)
As a non-native species introduced in Victorian times, the little owl falls outside BoCC5's assessment of native and naturally occurring populations, even though UK data show a substantial decline in recent decades.