This huge owl, often considered a subspecies of the more northern Eurasian Eagle Owl Bubo bubo. It is a very local breeding resident. It inhabits rocky scrub, large trees and ruins. On ancient monuments it will perch quite high but elsewhere it often roosts, and usually nests, on the ground. It breeds in mid-winter, like most owls.

Being mainly nocturnal or crepuscular, it may be overlooked as the sites it favours are not always safe to wander around at such times. However it is a large bird, subject to mobbing by crows and readily flushed so it is probably now genuinely very local. Its close relative the Dusky Eagle Owl (which is more closely associated with large trees in wetlands) has declined even more dramatically.