Voice
Very deep, hoarse coughing 'uh-hoo' or 'whoohuu' repeated infrequently, and far-carrying in territory. Cliks beak if disturbed or gives hard barking 'ka ka-kau'.
(Bubo) [XC378575]
by Stanislas Wroza from Egerkingen, G\u00e4u, Solothurn, Switzerland (begging call)
Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo) [XC768067]
by Michel Veldt from Tierra de Trujillo (near La Aldea del Obispo), C\u00e1ceres, Extremadura, Mongolia (song)
Subspecies
Eurasian Eagle-Owl (Bubo bubo) and Pharaoh Eagle-Owl (Bubo ascalaphus) (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) are retained as separate species contra AERC TAC (2003) and Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993) who include ascalphus as a subspecies of Bubo bubo.
A large number of additional subspecies named: populations described from Bashkirskaya (baschkiricus) included in sibiricus; from L Zaysan region (zaissanensis) in yenisseensis; from north-western Xinjiang (tarimensis) in turcomanus; from central Tibet and north-western China (tibetanus) in hemachalana; from northern Mongolia (dauricus) and Sakhalin (borissowi) in ussuriensis; from south-eastern Yunnan (jarlandi), Sichuan (setschuanus), Manchuria and northern China (inexpectatus) in kiautschensis; and from southern Kurils, Hokkaido and Korea (tenuipes) split between ussuriensis and kiautschensis.
The following 17 subspecies are recognised:
hispanus Rothschild & Hartert, 1910 - Iberian Peninsula; formerly also Atlas Mts in north-western Africa (probably extinct).
bubo (Linnaeus, 1758) - Europe from northern Spain and Scandinavia east to western Russia (east to about Gor'kiy).
ruthenus Buturlin & Zhitkov, 1906 - Central European Russia east to foothills of Ural Mts, south to lower Volga basin.
interpositus Rothschild & Hartert, 1910 - From Romania and southern Ukraine east to Volga delta, south to Middle East (south to central Israel and Jordan) and north-western Iran.
sibiricus (Gloger, 1833) - From western foothills of Urals east to R Ob, south to western Altai.
yenisseensis Buturlin, 1911 - Central Siberia from R Ob to L Baikal, south to Altai and northern Mongolia.
turcomanus (Eversmann, 1835) - Steppes between lower R Volga and R Ural, east to Transbaikalia, and south to Kazakhstan, extreme north-western China (Tarim Basin in north-western Xinjiang) and western Mongolia.
omissus Dementiev, 1933 - Turkmeniya to western China (Chinese Turkestan).
hemachalanus Hume, 1873 - From Pamirs and northern Tien Shan south to Himalayas.
nikolskii Zarudny, 1905 - Eastern Iraq and Iran, Afghanistan, and northern and western Pakistan.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet