WASSINK G & W HINGMANN (2010) Year-round diet of Eagle Owl Bubo bubo in The Netherlands and adjacent Germany. LIMOSA 83 (3): 97-108.

From June 2002 until December 2009, prey remains and pellets of Eagle Owls Bubo bubo were collected in nine territories in the Netherlands (provinces of Gelderland and Limburg) and 37 territories in Western Germany, just across the Dutch border. Five territories were monitored year-round. In total 4918 prey were identified (Tables 1 and 3).
      Woodpigeons Columba palumbus were the main prey in this study (37% of all prey; Tables 2 and 3), especially in the winter (81% in January; Fig. 10) when large numbers of Woodpigeons are present in the study area. In the summer, when fewer Woodpigeons are present, prey like Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus, Brown Rat Rattus norvegicus, Rabbit Cryctolagus curiculus, and crows Corvus sp. are important. Homing Pigeons Columba liva seem to replace Woodpigeons during the summer in the Eagle Owl diet, although the importance of Homing Pigeons might have been overestimated in this study as one individual Eagle Owl specialised on this prey species (this male took 68% of all Homing Pigeons included in this study).
      In the Netherlands and Western Germany pigeons formed a much larger proportion of the diet of Eagle Owls than elsewhere in Europe, even when excluding Homing Pigeons (Table 4). In our study Eagle Owls seldom preyed on mice, whereas in Europe mice comprise about 30% of the diet by number. This is possibly caused by a superabundance of other prey in our study area (especially pigeons). Also relatively few Rabbits were eaten in our study, which could be explained by low Rabbit densities due to the rabbit viral haemorrhagic disease. The large share in the diet of the most important prey species, and the scarcity of mice and raptors and other owls suggest that Eagle Owls in the Netherlands and Western Germany enjoy an abundance of food, and hence a further increase of their population is to be expected.

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