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Chapter 8 - Breeding Season

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 September 2023

Dries Van Nieuwenhuyse
Affiliation:
EHSAL Management School, Brussels, Belgium
Ronald van Harxen
Affiliation:
Dutch Little Owl Working Group (STONE)
David H. Johnson
Affiliation:
Global Owl Project, USA
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Summary

This chapter covers the entire Little Owl breeding cycle. The breeding season is obviously a critically important period during which reproduction can be influenced by many different factors, such as weather, food, habitat, density, geographical location and parental experience. The season begins in January or February with the affirmation of territorial boundaries and onset of courtship. The Little Owl does not have high a productivity due to very few replacement clutches, moderate fledging success and relatively high egg failure. According to the mortality rate of adults and juveniles, each pair should produce between 1.7 and 2.34 fledged young per year to compensate mortality and actually most of the long-term breeding studies across Europe show results ranging between both values. Analysis of consistently organized long-term demographic data has enhanced our understanding of Little Owl population dynamics. Further, this demographic data has been linked to specific habitat conditions at the nest site, home range and landscape scales. We offer clarification of the terminology related to nesting success and reproduction due to its importance in providing an accurate and consistent foundation for the data that will be used to assess the reproductive performance of the owls, as well in long-term monitoring of status and trends.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Little Owl
Population Dynamics, Behavior and Management of <I>Athene noctua</I>
, pp. 324 - 385
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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