22 cm long), cryptically coloured, mainly nocturnal species and is found in a range of habitats including farmland, woodland fringes, steppes and semi-deserts.

The little owl was formally described in 1769 by the Italian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli under the binomial name Strix noctua.

[3] The little owl is now placed in the genus Athene that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1822.

The species name noctua has, in effect, the same meaning, being the Latin name of an owl sacred to Minerva, Athena's Roman counterpart.

In general, the different varieties both overlap with the ranges of neighbouring groups and intergrade (hybridise) with them across their boundaries.

[11] The adult little owl of the most widespread form, the nominate A. n. noctua, is white-speckled brown above, and brown-streaked white below.

It has a large head, long legs, and yellow eyes, and its white "eyebrows" give it a stern expression.

Its range in Eurasia extends from the Iberian Peninsula and Denmark eastwards to China and southwards to the Himalayas.

It was introduced to Otago in New Zealand by the local acclimatisation society in 1906, and to Canterbury a little later, and is now widespread in the eastern and northern South Island;[13] it is partially protected under Schedule 2 of New Zealand's Wildlife Act 1953, whereas most introduced birds explicitly have no protection or are game birds.

These include agricultural land with hedgerows and trees, orchards, woodland verges, parks and gardens, as well as steppes and stony semi-deserts.

[10] In continental Europe and Asia it may be found at much higher elevations; one individual was recorded from 3,600 m (12,000 ft) in Tibet.

It feeds on prey such as insects and earthworms, as well as small vertebrates including amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.

[12] A study of the pellets of indigestible material that the birds regurgitate found mammals formed 20 to 50% of the diet and insects 24 to 49%.

The home range, in which the bird actually hunts for food, varies with the type of habitat and time of year.

Larger home-ranges result in increased flight activity, longer foraging trips and fewer nest visits.

[1] Owls have often been depicted from the Upper Palaeolithic onwards, in forms from statuettes and drawings to pottery and wooden posts, but in the main they are generic rather than identifiable to species.

[19][20] In 1843 several little owls that had been brought from Italy were released by the English naturalist Charles Waterton on his estate at Walton Hall in Yorkshire but these failed to establish themselves.

In 1935 the British Trust for Ornithology initiated a study into the little owl's diet led by the naturalist Alice Hibbert-Ware.

The report showed that the owls feed almost entirely on insects, other invertebrates and small mammals and thus posed little threat to game birds.

In Italy, tamed and docked little owls were kept to hunt rodents and insects in the house and garden.

This took advantage of the fact that many bird species react to owls with aggressive behaviour when they discover them during the day (mobbing).

[25] Only since the 1990s has this trade been officially banned; however, because of the long cultural tradition for hunting with little owls, exemptions are still granted.