What they like

Small-scale farmland. Short turf for hunting, messy corners to hide in. Pollarded willows, old standard fruit trees, little sheds and farmyards with some life. Help them out: leave a rough strip along a field or garden, mow in stages, and keep one patch of lawn short. Hang a little owl nest box on a quiet shed or at the edge of a wood. Plant hawthorn, blackthorn and hazel as living hedges.

Ecological importance

This is your nocturnal mouse manager. He hunts mice, beetles, earthworms and sometimes a songbird. He themself is on the menu for stone martens and large owls. More cover and more insects = more little owls.

When in the Netherlands

Year‑round. Usually breeds April–June. You’ll hear them most easily at dusk.

Status

Scarce breeding bird. Local recovery stories, but still vulnerable because of tightly mown land and lack of nest sites.