Dagritme en copulaties van de Steenuil Athene noctua in Taarlo

A pair of Little Owls temporarily occupied a nestbox in the village of Taarlo. The activity pattern of the birds was recorded during 24 observation hours between 8 and 16 March 1994 (Table 1). The owls were mostly inactive from 30 min after sunrise till an hour before sunset, except for sunning behaviour during the daytime. On all four days with observations between 18h00 and 19h00, copulations were registered. Copulations took place on a fixed perch (branch of an oak) in the period from 6-13 min before sunset till 5-30 min thereafter. Typically, several copulations were performed in one uninterrupted session: the male mounted the female, copulated 2, 3, 3 and 5 times respectively (time span involved from 1 to 7 min) and did not leave the back of the female inbetween copulations.