Adult Nomadism in Tengmalm's Owl Aegolius funereus

Abstract

To test the hypotheses that Tengmalm's Owl is 'nomadic', we examined Swedish ring recoveries of adults and juveniles marked during the breeding season. There was no clear difference in dispersal distance between adults and juveniles. In two cases, adults nested a few 100 m from the sites where they bred during one and two preceding years, respectively. There was one clear case of adult nomadism: an owl captured on the nest breed two years later 510 km away. This may be the longest distance recorded between two breeding sites in the same bird.