Eurasian Scops Owl

Otus scops

Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
Presence in the Strait: Seasonal
Abundance: common
Protection in Spain: Special protection (List)
In Spanish: Autillo europeo

Photograph: Frank Vassen from Brussels, Belgium, CC BY 2.0, vía Wikimedia Commons

Length: 19–20 cm
Wingspan: 50–54 cm
Weight: 90 g

Presence in the Strait

Common summer visitor to forests and parks.

Identification

The smallest of the group, the size of a Starling. Two morphs, rufous or greyish, both with general white spotting, highly cryptic. Elongated appearance, ear-tufts and yellow eyes. Monotonous, high-pitched call «quiuu».

Movements

Peaks in 1st hf. April and 2nd hf. September.

Ring recoveries

Ciudad Real (1).

Bioestrecho editorial text. Last revised: 8 September 2026.

Photographs from iNaturalist observations with the licence checked file by file. Those marked “Strait” were taken within the area; place and date are those of each observation.

Calendar in the Strait

30 %

Peak in April. Observations under CC0 or CC BY licences. The distribution also reflects observation effort.

Where it is seen

Open records from the atlas database, in cells of about 3.6 km. Opacity follows the square root of the count, and also reflects where people observe most.

See on the map

First open record: 12 April 1973
Latest record: 2 April 2025

The oldest and the most recent open observation in the extended area. A recent first observation does not mean the species is new: it means nobody had published it openly before.

Conservation

The catalogues, Andalusian and Spanish, are what binds; the Red Book assesses the Spanish population with IUCN criteria, and the global Red List is the context.

LCNTVUENCR

Andalusian Catalogue: Special protection (List)
Spanish Catalogue: Special protection (List)
Red Book of the Birds of Spain 2021: VU · Vulnerable · breeding
Global Red List (IUCN): LC · Least concern

Andalusian Catalogue: Junta de Andalucía, list of 24 April 2025. Spanish Catalogue: MITECO, table of 30 June 2025. Red Book: SEO/BirdLife, 2021 (Annex I). IUCN: via GBIF, 6 September 2026. Red Book and IUCN categories are assessments; catalogue categories are legal obligations.

Where they come from

1 birds ringed in other countries and recovered in the area.

Spain1

See the journey on the map

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
GBIF taxon key: 2497701

Sources

Distribution and calendar: Bioestrecho's own database, ingested from GBIF and OBIS
Photograph: Frank Vassen from Brussels, Belgium, CC BY 2.0, vía Wikimedia Commons
Taxonomy: GBIF backbone, pending WoRMS for marine taxa
Editorial text: written by Bioestrecho
Last revised: 8 September 2026

Eurasian Scops Owl

Presence in the Strait

Identification

Movements

Ring recoveries

Gallery