Gould wrote 'This diurnal Owl, so commonly spread over many parts of Northern Europe, Siberia and America, having twice been captured in England, ornithologists generally agree in ...giving it a place in our avifauna; its visits, however, must be regarded as purely accidental.' According to Gould the first record of a captured Hawk Owl was on board a collier off Cornwall in 1830, and the second in 1847 at Yatton near the Bristol and Exeter railway.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds from Scandinavia eastwards to northwest Siberia, Alaska and Canada. Rare vagrant to Britain, with 11 records up to 1985