Little Owl

(Athene noctua)

Live: In New Zealand, Canterbury and Otago.

Habitat: Open agricultural or pastoral country, with scattered trees or hedges to provide cover during the day.

Diet: Little Owls are ground feeders and do not usually catch prey while in flight. They eat mostly insects such as earwigs, beetles and moths; also spiders, snails, worms, lizards, mice and small birds.

Breeding: The breeding season is in October. The owls nest in holes in trees, banks or cliffs, or in rabbit holes or haystacks. Between 3 and 5 eggs are laid at 2-day intervals. The female incubates them for 28 days and is reluctant to leave the owlets in the first week. At a month old the chicks sit at the entrance to their nesting site waiting to be fed. A week later they take short flights, sheltering in cavities while their parents hunt. The parents will continue to care for them for several more weeks.

General: Between 1906 and 1910, orchardists in Otago imported Little Owls from Germany in the hope that they would eat the small birds ruining their fruit crops. Unfortunately, the owls were more interested in insects.

The morepork (a native owl) no longer lives in areas inhabited by the Little Owl.