Europe’s smallest bird of prey, the Eurasian pygmy owl, has now been confirmed in Spain for the first time, marking a westward expansion from the bird’s usual range.
Researchers first captured the sounds of the Eurasian pygmy owl (Glaucidium passerinum) in early 2023 in Val d’Aran inside the Catalonia region of eastern Spain, using automated audio recorders during dawn and dusk, when the birds are most active. They then confirmed the species’ presence in January 2025 after specialized teams verified the audio recordings.
“This is the first individual of this species detected in Catalonia,” the local government of Val d’Aran announced in a statement.
Just 15-19 centimeters (6-7.5 inches) tall, the tiny Eurasian pygmy owl has a flat-topped head and a hooded face that frames its yellow eyes. Its range is known to span from Norway to northeastern China, but with this announcement and other recent sightings, its population seems to be pushing west in France and Spain in recent years.
“Glaucidium has expanded its population in southern Europe,” Marc Illa, an ornithologist at the Catalan Institute of Ornithology, told Mongabay by email. “Some possible but unconfirmed records have been reported, but the data do not have full validity. Fortunately, as was published, the species’ presence was confirmed last year.”
Starting in 2015, sightings of the owl began to increase outside of its typical range, first on the French side of the Pyrenees mountain range, which divides Spain and France. A few years later, in 2021, the owl was reportedly spotted in Aragon, Spain, on the other side of the mountain range.
The reasons for this expansion are still being studied. There are no currently identified threats to the species, and its conservation status is of least concern on the IUCN Red List.
An initial assessment by the team in Val d’Aran determined that the owls they recently detected in Spain came from the Alps mountain range, which stretches across eight countries in Central Europe. According to the European Breeding Bird Atlas, local populations of the bird in the Alps are expanding.
Whie scientists are still unsure about why the owl is being detected outside its known range, previous studies have found that low prey numbers can push the owls outside their original habitats.
French ornithologist Christian Riols told Ornithomedia that the owl may have appeared in the region before, with an early sighting recorded in 1988 in Aragon. He cautioned that the recent rise in sightings could be due to more advanced surveying efforts rather than an actual population surge.
Banner image: A Eurasian pygmy owl in Estonia by Erik Karits via Pexels.
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