Eurasian scops owl

(Otus scops)

Category of conservation concern (IUCN, 2020) – Least Concern

Population size: 6 000 – 9 000 pairs

Distribution pattern

With patchy and dispersed distribution throughout the country, more consistent in the Eastern Rhodopes, Sakar, the valleys of the Rivers Struma and Mesta, Eastern Stara Planina, the Black Sea coast, Dobrudzha, Ludogorie, the area around Vitosha and the Sofia Field, and more dispersed in the Thracian Plain, the Western Rhodopes, Sredna Gora, the central and western part of the Danube plain, the Fore-Balkan, etc. Does not occur in the high parts of most of the mountains.

Comparative distribution of the species compared to the first breeding birds atlas (Iankov, 2007): Breeding locality until 2007 | Breeding locality until 2007, confirmed after 2015 – | New breeding locality after 2015. – The breeding localities after 2015 are identified on a base of raw data from smartbirds.org.

Habitats

Breeds in forests, mainly in broad-leaved deciduous forests, but also in in alluvial and riverine forests and brush, less often in coniferous forests. Part of the population breeds in towns, villages, industrial zones, in both buildings and in roadside trees or in public parks and large gardens. Very often breeds along riverside strips of trees, shrubs, and mosaics of them, in orchards, tree and shrub plantations, and sometimes – in cavities on inland cliffs and exposed rocks.

Trends in population changes for the period 2013-2020

Not analysed

Threats

Not analysed