The boreal owl or Tengmalm's owl (Aegolius funereus) is a small owl in the "true owl" family Strigidae. It is known as the boreal owl in North America and as Tengmalm's owl in Europe after Swedish naturalist Peter Gustaf Tengmalm or, more rarely, Richardson's owl after Sir John Richardson. Due to the boreal owl's shyness and evasive reaction to human activities, nocturnal habits and preferred inaccessible taiga forest habitat, it is rarely seen by humans.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
⚠ sources differ — AnAge: 120 g · AmnioteDB: 132 g · AVONET: 137 g · EltonTraits: 137 g
Body mass (female)167 g
Body mass (male)107 g
Hand-wing index31.5
Kipp's distance53.2 mm
SVL21 cm
Secondary length116 mm
Tail length102 mm
Tarsus length23.4 mm
Wing length169 mm
Life cycle & reproduction11
Age at maturity (male)365 days
Age at sexual maturity365 days
Egg mass12.5 g
Fledging age31.7 days
Fledging mass156 g
Gestation27 days
Incubation27.75 days
Litter size5
Litters per year1 /year
Max. longevity191 months
Neonate mass9 g
⚠ sources differ — AnAge: 9 g · AmnioteDB: 8.4 g
Diet & foraging6
Ground90 %
Invertebrate30 %
Trophic levelcarnivore
Trophic nicheVertivore
Understory10 %
Vertebrate endotherm70 %
Habitat & environment4
HabitatForest
Migration2.0
Primary lifestyleInsessorial
Range size23 596 075 km²
05DNA & barcoding14 specimens
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Aegolius funereus has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens14
BINs2
Marker genes1
eDNA detections13
Countries6
The DNA barcodethe species' typical barcode, built from every sequenced specimen
COI-5P648 bp consensus11 specimens
ACGT
▸ drag or hover over the strip to read any position — letter and how much it varies
Violet ticks below the strip = positions where individuals differ; flat = the species' unchanging signature. 96% of positions are identical in every specimen.
Where individuals differ — all 28 variable positions, in barcode order
Each circle is a barcode variant; bigger = more specimens, colour = region. Lines join the most similar variants and the tick marks count the mutations between them — a tight cluster is one “dialect”, a long line a more divergent lineage. Click a circle to list its actual specimens.
Diversity (π)1.3%
Haplotypes4
BINs2
Most divergent pair0.31%
EuropeAsia
Closest relatives by DNA barcode
The species whose COI barcode is most similar to this one — a quick “who is this most like”. The percentage is how much the barcode differs; it approximates, but is not, the full evolutionary tree.
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★COI-5P
animal barcode
06Genome at a glanceGoaT · NCBI
The complete instruction manualAegolius funereus carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Genome size≈1 169 757 887 bp assembly estimate
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
BACTERIUM Carsonella ruddii0.00016 Gb
FUNGUS0.04 Gb
INSECT0.25 Gb
THIS GENOME Aegolius funereus1.17 Gb
HUMAN3.2 Gb
WHEAT17 Gb
FERN Tmesipteris160.45 Gb
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
Assembly levelScaffold
07Deep time0.13–0.01 Ma
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
Fossil range0.13–0.01 Ma Pleistocene
Dated fossil finds8
StatusStill living record runs to the present
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The solid bar is the fossil range: the span between the oldest and the youngest fossil that palaeontologists have assigned to Aegolius funereus. Above itBeside it, each dot is one dated fossil find — few enough to count, so they are drawn individually rather than as a graph.
fossil range (PBDB)each dot = one dated find
How it livedPBDB
Environmentterrestrial
Life habitvolant
Dietcarnivore, insectivore
Motilityactively mobile
Visionwell-developed
Compositionhydroxyapatite
Reproductionoviparous, brooding
Ontogenyaccretion,modification of parts
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type273 007 records
Wild obs. + sensor270 249
Museum / vouchered2 632
Cultivated / captive86
Fossil8
Other32
Origin
Native217
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO142 012 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy44% within 1 km
≤100 m 36 225≤1 km 69 624≤10 km 127 819>10 km 4 940
238 608 georeferenced · 31 641 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor270 249
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy14% within 1 km
≤100 m 57≤1 km 125≤10 km 495>10 km 660
1 337 georeferenced · 1 295 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence2 632
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
Coordinate accuracy0% within 1 km
≤10 km 56>10 km 30
86 georeferenced
Open the mapnot free-living86
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions37 of 59 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
Stockholm, SE
993
Helsinki, FI
622
Oulu, FI
211
Kuopio, FI
117
Museo civico La Terra e l'Uomo di Crocetta del Montellolocation not on record
59
Salzburg, AT
55
MZLUlocation not on record
51
Zoological Museum, Moscow Lomonosov State Universitylocation not on record
49
Seattle, US
44
Edmonton, CA
41
Kristiansand, NO
40
Royal Saskatchewan Museumlocation not on record
30
Tromsø, NO
27
Ann Arbor, US
20
Geneva, CH
19
Denver, US
17
Provincia di Livornolocation not on record
14
Saint John, CA
12
ZMAAlocation not on record
9
München, DE
7
Bergen, NO
7
Albany, US
6
Washington State University, Charles R. Conner Museumlocation not on record
5
TMPMlocation not on record
5
Rovaniemi, FI
5
Frankfurt am Main
5
Wuzhou, CN
5
IMEDEAlocation not on record
4
Copenhagen, DK
4
Tacoma, US
4
Chicago, US
3
Cambridge, US
3
Brussels, BE
3
Central Michigan University Museum of Cultural and Natural Historylocation not on record
3
Vancouver, CA
2
Philadelphia, US
2
Barcelona, ES
2
Musee d'Histoire Naturallelocation not on record
2
Iowa City, US
2
Forssa, FI
2
Bourges, FR
2
US
2
Universidad de Caldas (UCaldas)location not on record
1
Royal Ontario Museumlocation not on record
1
Toronto, CA
1
University of Alberta Museumslocation not on record
1
Bavarian State Collection of Zoologylocation not on record
1
Yamashina Institute for Ornithologylocation not on record
1
Paris, FR
1
SNSDlocation not on record
1
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record
1
Philip L. Wright Zoological Museumlocation not on record
1
noflocation not on record
1
Ithaca, US
1
Zacatecas, MX
1
SLU Artdatabankenlocation not on record
1
Gothenburg, SE
1
STOCKHOLM, SE
1
John May Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record
1
59 institutions · 2 532 of 2 632 vouchered records shown · 97 without an institution code
Cultivated / Captivenot free-living
A living individual in a botanical garden, zoo or nursery — cultivated or kept, not free-living.
09Environmental DNA13 detections
Where the DNA of Aegolius funereus was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found13
Studies independent surveys1
Countries5
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 13 detections have coordinates
Open the map5 countries0
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median7.20 °C 1.90–13.2
Seasonal swing summer↔winter25.1 °C
Max temp (day)11.2 °C 4.20–14.4
Min temp (night)2.00 °C -1.90–11.7
Precipitation80.7 mm/mo 38.5–152
Air humidity60.2 % 58.8–63.4
Moisture balance10.8 mm/mo -12.5–80.2
Vapour deficit418 Pa 276–554
Wind speed2.60 m/s 2.10–3.70
Cloud cover49.0 % 41.0–52.5
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 11 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation17 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility272 995 records↗
OBISOcean Biodiversity Information System4 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI13 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics14 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Paleobiology DatabasePBDB consortiumfossil record↗
WikidataWikimedia Foundationstructured facts↗
IOC World Bird ListIOCbird checklist↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗