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The birds wait on a high perch at night and swoop down on prey. They mainly eat small organisms with a strong focus on small mammals in their diet. Swengel and Swengel (1992) reviewed ten studies that found northern saw-whet owls eating almost exclusively mammals (88% to 100%), with most of the mammals being rodents (85% to 99+%).
Tawny owls do not take birds as commonly as mammals. Unlike the unrelated lineages of diurnal birds of prey, owls in general seldom prefer avian prey, with most varieties preferring small mammals and/or insects, except on a local basis (the closest to a specialized hunter of other birds are some in the pygmy owl genus).
This species can adapt to surprisingly small prey where it is the only kind available and to large prey where it is abundant. Eurasian eagle-owls feed most commonly on small mammals weighing 100 g (0.22 lb) or more, although nearly 45% of the prey species recorded have an average adult body mass of less than 100 g (3.5 oz).
Eyesight is a particular characteristic of the owl that aids in nocturnal prey capture. Owls are part of a small group of birds that live nocturnally, but do not use echolocation to guide them in flight in low-light situations. Owls are known for their disproportionally large eyes in comparison to their skulls.
The report showed that the owls feed almost entirely on insects, other invertebrates and small mammals and thus posed little threat to game birds. [ 22 ] [ 23 ] There is evidence that from the 19th century little owls were occasionally kept as ornamental birds.
Its food consists mainly of rodents, especially voles, but it will eat other small mammals such as rabbits, [17] mice, ground squirrels, shrews, rats, bats, muskrats and moles. It will also occasionally depredate smaller birds, especially when near sea-coasts and adjacent wetlands at which time they attack shorebirds , terns and small gulls and ...
Roosting owls may be discovered and "mobbed" by small birds during the day, but they normally ignore the disturbance. [18] Tawny owls are very territorial, and will indicate the location of their chosen territory by their vocalisations, which occur at their greatest frequency during the night, though some owls will continue to call during the day.
In general, the slightly smaller rufous and notably smaller barking owl both display more frequent and more spiritedly aggressive nest defense than the powerful owl does. Young powerful owls are mostly off-white with a greyish-brown mask and grey on the wings and coverts, and are obviously distinct from the adult plumage. [8]