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Northern Hawk Owl Observations Fell to a Tiira-era Low in Finland in Spring 2026

Northern hawk owl perched against a blue sky at Lista, Norway
Conservation · Population & status

BirdLife Finland’s review of spring 2026 found fewer observations of northern hawk owl (Surnia ulula) than in any previous spring in the Tiira observation system. BirdLife reported that records of wintering birds were virtually absent after the winter, and the owls were not subsequently found in the more northerly breeding areas either.

From March through May, nearly 700,000 observations covering 311 bird species were submitted to Tiira, with the summed numbers of individuals exceeding 28 million. BirdLife’s comparisons use spatial grid analyses designed to reduce distortion when several observers report the same birds from the same place. Depending on the species, the comparison is based on the number of one-square-kilometre or 100-square-kilometre grid cells, or on the largest seasonal or daily count.

BirdLife stresses that variation in Tiira observation and individual totals reflects both real changes in abundance and weather conditions that affect where and how easily birds are detected. A low observation total therefore does not directly show an equivalent change in the breeding or migrating population. For the northern hawk owl, the 2026 result documents an exceptionally sparse observed spring in Finland rather than a direct national population estimate.

Sources and image credit

  1. BirdLife Suomi. (2026, June 10). Lintukevät 2026.BirdLife Finland’s national Tiira spring review reported the lowest northern hawk owl observation total of the Tiira era in spring 2026, with almost no recorded wintering birds after winter and very few later records in northern breeding areas. The page also explains the grid-based comparison method and cautions that observation totals do not translate directly into breeding-population change.

Image: Marton Berntsen / Wikimedia Commons — northern hawk owl photographed at Lista, Norway, 22 September 2012; representative species image, not a bird from the Finnish Tiira 2026 observations; cropped to 16:9 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source

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