are laid directly to bottom of nesting surface in roughly 2 day intervals. Females alone incubate usually beginning with the first egg, and is fed by her mate throughout. In 108 female Ural owls from Finland the start of incubation varied individually, with synchronous hatching shown to be disadvantageous to overall productivity. Evidence was found that females repeated their incubation start time annually was moderately strong (26% repeatability) so it may be an evolved trait. Incubation lasts for 28 to 35 days and averages about 6 days longer than the incubation period of the tawny owl.Scherzinger, Y.V. (1974). Habichtskauznachzucht im Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald gelungen. Zool. Garten, 44:59-61. The hatchlings break at concurrent time lapses as the eggs are laid (about 2 days), the females staying by until fledging. The downy chick is white; at the stage when they typically leave the nest (or mesoptile stage) the downy is pale dirty whitish and barred with greyish-brown on head, nape, mantle and underparts. Nestlings leave the nest at about 35 days old and can fly at 45 days. They are fed and cared for over an additional 2 months or so after leaving the nests. Parental behaviours and characteristics The young Ural owls officially reach sexual maturity in the year after independence. However, in southern Finland, it was found that first time nesting females generally would not attempt to nest if it was a poor vole year and the largest percentage (about 40%) first started breeding attempts in intermediate years (between poor and good vole years), which often did not occur until they were 3 to 4 years old. The same typical age (3–4 years) was detected in central Sweden, despite the females often being on territory within their first year. Upon study of feather molt and wear, it was supported that some female Ural owls breed in their 2nd or 3rd year, but most do not breed until their 4th or 5th year. On the contrary, a Finnish study found that for Ural owls of both sexes, it was estimated that the mean starting age for breeding is 2.9 years, with an average breeding life expectancy of 3.3 years. Furthermore, females that started breeding at 2 or 3 were shown in Finland to have higher reproductive “fitness” than females who started breeding at 4 or older. Females laid eggs in Finland an average of 2.7 times in their life and produced