Even though most bird species with a raptorial feeding habit express varying extents of reversed sexual dimorphism (RSD: females bigger than males), the evolutionary basis for its maintenance, as well as its possible secondary consequences for the ecological adaptations of the different sexes, is debated. We studied pairs of tawny owls, Strix aluco (females 20% heavier than males), throughout the year by telemetry to test whether any inter‐sexual differences in movement patterns, resource partitioning and breeding effort correlated with RSD. Females were larger than males in all body size measures and were 16% heavier than would be expected from the difference in wing length alone. In accordance with predictions from flight economics, males moved longer distances per time unit than females, in particular during the post‐fledging season, when they also fed chicks more often than the females. Males had larger home ranges than females during the post‐fledging period, whereas the sexes had home ranges of equal size during the non‐breeding season. Until 10 days after fledging, females foraged much closer to the offspring than males, apparently balancing their distance to offspring between the needs of offspring guarding and foraging. In males, the parent–offspring distance only increased with decreasing brood condition. The sexes did not differ in habitat use or feeding habits, rendering no indications of food niche partitioning. The study provides further evidence that selection for males to be light and energetically efficient foragers is the main evolutionary force behind RSD in raptorial birds, even when the prey base is confined by territoriality.

Tawny owls Strix aluco generally roost in cryptic locations during the day. To test the hypothesis that this cryptic behaviour is an effort to avoid mobbers or avian predators, we measured diurnal behaviour and cause-specific mortality of radiotagged birds. Non-breeding adults (assumed to be well fed individuals, optimising their own survival) roosted in less exposed locations than adults with young and newly independent juveniles. Parents roosted in the most exposed sites when their young were immature and vulnerable to depredation, probably to guard offspring. Newly independent juveniles apparently selected roosting sites in exposed places to get access to food, as this behaviour was associated with lower perching heights and higher prey abundance beneath their roosting sites. They also perched in more exposed sites, closer to the ground, in summers with low prey abundance compared to summers with high prey abundance. After previous encounters with goshawks Accipiter gentilis, dependent juveniles roosted in less exposed places compared to other young. The increased risk of being mobbed was highly significant with increasing roosting exposure. Once an owl was mobbed, the intensity of the mobbing correlated positively with the mass of the mobbers, but mobbing birds never killed any owls. In contrast, diurnal raptors caused 73% of natural owl deaths (n =15) and the depredation rate by raptors was 3.8 times higher in population classes that generally roosted in more exposed locations than did non-breeding adults. We therefore suggest that depredation by diurnal raptors is the main factor shaping the diurnal behaviour of tawny owls.P. Sunde (correspondence), M.

General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research.• You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. AbstractThe spatial dispersion and social interactions were studied in 11 neighbouring pairs of radio-tagged tawny owls Strix aluco in a deciduous wood in Denmark from 1998-2001. The numbers and shapes of territories were stable throughout the survey and similar to a mapping made 40 years earlier. The home ranges of mates were of equal size and overlapped 82% in summer and 56% in winter. The inter-mate distances were on average 2.7% shorter than expected by chance. The activity distribution of neighbouring pairs overlapped 9% (95% CI: 2-15%) on average. Males and females did not differ in overlap with neighbours, and there was a similar overlap between neighbours of the same and opposite sex. Both sexes vocalized more often in the peripheries than in the centres of their territory. The vocal activity during May-September varied extensively among years and months in accordance with variation in the density of juvenile floaters. Males and females vocalized equally often and were involved in disputes with neighbours at similar rates. Usually, neighbouring disputes involved either one individual from each pair or all four. Disputes involving all four owls more often involved chasing and fighting than those involving one owl only from each pair. The dispute rate between neighbouring pairs correlated positively with home-range overlap. The total annual mortality was 21% (95% CI: 6-33%). Dead owners were usually replaced within 1-2 months. Two out of four cases of radio-tagged owls disappearing from their territory because of natural causes was due to take-overs by invading owls, suggesting that the risk of losing fitness resulting from eviction was important. The apparent co-operative territorial behaviour of tawny owl pairs is probably due to improved resource holding potential of pair coalitions compared to single individuals.