much smaller and slimmer, with prominent ear-tufts, orange eyes and more prominent dark markings. More similar than any in Europe, the closely related Père David's owl does not occur in the same range as (other?) Ural owls but is darker in plumage, also with a facial disc marked with darker concentric lines. Due to its partially diurnal behaviour during warmer months, some authors consider it confusable with the very different looking (but similarly largish and long-tailed) northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis).Dementiev, G. P., Gladkov, N. A., Ptushenko, E. S., Spangenberg, E. P., & Sudilovskaya, A. M. (1966). Birds of the Soviet Union, vol. 1. Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem. Taxonomy The Ural owl was named by Peter Simon Pallas in 1771 as Strix uralensis, due to the type specimen having been collected in the Ural mountains range. While the Urals fall around the middle of the species’ distribution, some authors such as Karel Voous lamented that a more broadly appropriate than Ural owl wasn’t derived for the English common name. In other languages, the species is referred to as Slaguggla, or “attacking owl”, in Swedish, Habichtskauz, or “goshawk-owl”, in German or as the “long-tailed owl” in Russian.Hager, A. (1975). Forsok med holkar for slaguggla Strix uralensis. Var Fagelvarld, 34(4), 321. The Ural owl is a member of the Strix genus, which are quite often referred to as wood owls. Conservatively, about 18 species are currently represented in this genus, typically being medium to large sized owls, characteristically round-headed and lacking ear tufts, which acclimate to living in forested parts of various climatic zones.Sibley, C. G., & Ahlquist, J. E. (1990). Phylogeny and classification of birds: a study in molecular evolution. Yale University Press. Four owls native to the neotropics are sometimes additionally included with the Strix genus but some authorities have also included these in a separate but related genus, Ciccaba.Wink, M., El-Sayed, A. A., Sauer-Gürth, H., & Gonzalez, J. (2009). Molecular phylogeny of owls (Strigiformes) inferred from DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b and the nuclear RAG-1 gene. Ardea, 97(4), 581-592. Strix owls have an extensive fossil record and have long been widely distributed. The genetic relationship of true owls is somewhat muddled and different genetic testings has variously indicated that Strix owls are related to disparate appearing genera like Pulsatrix, Bubo and Asio.Lee, M. Y., Lee, S. M., Jeon, H. S., Lee, S. H., Park, J. Y.,