Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo) nesting in a nest box on a very high voltage electricity pylon

Abstract

Eurasian eagle-owl ([Bubo bubo]) nesting in a nest box on a very high voltage electricity pylon

In 2008 an Eurasian eagle-owl ([Bubo bubo]) nestled down for the first time in a wooden nest box with dimensions of 80×80×80 cm, installed on a very high voltage electricity pylon in open agricultural landscape near the village of Budkovce on the Východoslovenská rovina plain in Slovakia. Since 2008 it has nested in this nest box every year, raising 1 and 2×3 young. Nesting by an Eurasian eagle-owl in a nest box on a pylon in agricultural land has not previously been recorded in any part of its whole breeding range. An interesting discovery in 2010 was a clutch of four eggs laid by a common kestrel ([Falco tinnunculus]) found in the corner of the box, despite the fact that the Eurasian eagle-owls female and chicks were in the nest box.