Chapter 9. Review of technical knowledge: Boreal owls

Abstract

The boreal owl (Aegolius funereus), known as Tengmalm's owl in Eurasia, occurs throughout the holarctic in boreal climatic zones. This medium-size owl (100-170 g) occupies boreal and subalpine forests in an almost continuous circumboreal distribution that extends from Scandinavia eastward across the northern forests of Siberia and from Alaska across Canada to the Atlantic (Dement'ev and Gladkov 1954). On each continent, disjunct populations occur in mountains south of the broad transcontinental boreal forest populations (Cramp 1977, Voous 1988). Boreal owls in the mountain regions of Europe and Asia have long been recognized as isolated resident breeding populations, whereas in North America, breeding status was only recently documented in the mountains of the western United States (Hayward and Garton 1983, Palmer and Ryder 1984, Hayward et al. 1987a, Whelton 1989).

Parent Publication

• Flammulated, boreal, and great gray owls in the United States: A technical conservation assessment

Citation

Hayward, Gregory D. 1994. Chapter 9. Review of technical knowledge: Boreal owls. In: Hayward, G. D.; Verner, J., tech. editors. Flammulated, boreal, and great gray owls in the United States: A technical conservation assessment. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM-253. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. p. 92-127