Tawny owls are Britain's most familiar owl, but face welfare pressures from road mortality, cat attacks on fledglings, and loss of nesting holes in managed woodland.
Tawny owl welfare is compromised primarily by road mortality and cat predation of fledglings. Young owls that leave the nest before they can fly well (branchers) spend several weeks on or near the ground in May and June - precisely the period when free-roaming cats are most dangerous. Roads that dissect good hunting habitat are traps for hunting adults. Simple interventions - keeping cats in at night and driving carefully on rural roads at night - reduce these preventable welfare harms. Installing owl nest boxes provides nest sites where old trees have been removed.