title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: Among standard measurements for the Eurasian eagle-owl, the wing chord measures , the tail measures long, the tarsus measures , and the total length of the bill is . The wings are reportedly the smallest in proportion to the body weight of any European owl, when measured by the weight per area of wing size, was found to be 0.72 g/cm. Thus, they have quite high wing loading. The great horned owl has even smaller wings (0.8 g/cm) relative to its body size. The golden eagle has slightly lower wing loading proportionately (0.65 g/cm), so the aerial abilities of the two species (beyond the eagle’s spectacular ability to stoop) may not be as disparate as expected. Some other owls, such as barn owls, short-eared owls ("Asio flammeus"), and even the related snowy owls have lower wing loading relative to their size, so are presumably able to fly faster, with more agility, and for more extended periods than the Eurasian eagle-owl. In the relatively small race "B. b. hispanus", the middle claw, the largest talon, (as opposed to rear hallux-claw, which is the largest in accipitrids) was found to measure from in length. A female examined in Britain (origins unspecified) had a middle claw measuring , on par in length with a large female golden eagle hallux-claw. Generally, owls do not have talons as proportionately large as those of accipitrids, but have stronger, more robust feet relative to their size. Accipitrids use their talons to inflict organ damage and blood loss, whereas typical owls use their feet to constrict their prey to death, the talons serving only to hold the prey in place or provide incidental damage. The talons of the Eurasian eagle-owl are very large and not often exceeded in size by diurnal raptors. Unlike the great horned owls, the overall foot size and strength of the Eurasian eagle-owl is not known to have been tested, but the considerably smaller horned owl has one of the strongest grips ever measured in a bird.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The feathers of the ear tufts in Spanish birds (when not damaged) were found to measure from . The ear openings (covered in feathers as in all birds) are relatively uncomplicated for an owl, but are also large, being larger on the right than on the left as in most owls, and proportionately larger than those of the great horned owl. In the female, the ear opening averages on the right and on the left, and in males, averages on the right and on the left. The depth of the facial disc and the size and complexity of the ear opening are directly correlated to the importance of sound in an owl’s hunting behaviour. Examples of owls with more complicated ear structures and deeper facial disc are barn owls, long-eared owls ("Asio otus"), and boreal owls ("Aegolius funereus"). Given the uncomplicated structure of their ear openings and relatively shallow, undefined facial discs, hunting by ear is secondary to hunting by sight in eagle-owls; this seems to be true for "Bubo" in general. More sound-based hunters such as the aforementioned species likely focus their hunting activity in more complete darkness. Also, owls with white throat patches such as the Eurasian eagle-owl are more likely to be active in low-light conditions in the hours before and after sunrise and sunset rather than the darkest times in the middle of the night. The boreal and barn owls, to extend these examples, lack obvious visual cues such as white throat patches (puffed up in displaying eagle-owls), again indicative of primary activity being in darker periods.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The great size, bulky, barrel-shaped build, erect ear tufts, and orange eyes render this as a distinctive species. Other than general morphology, the above features differ markedly from those of two of the next largest subarctic owl species in Europe and western Asia, which are the great grey owl and the greyish to chocolate-brown Ural owl ("Strix uralensis"), both of which have no ear tufts and have a distinctly rounded head, rather than the blocky shape of the eagle-owl’s head. The snowy owl is obviously distinctive from most eagle-owls, but during winter the palest Eurasian eagle-owl race ("B. b. sibiricus") can appear off-white. Nevertheless, the latter is still distinctively an ear-tufted Eurasian eagle-owl and lacks the pure white background colour and variable blackish spotting of the slightly smaller species (which has relatively tiny, vestigial ear tufts that have only been observed to have flared on rare occasions).


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The long-eared owl has a somewhat similar plumage to the eagle-owl, but is considerably smaller (an average female eagle-owl may be twice as long and 10 times heavier than an average long-eared owl). Long-eared owls in Eurasia have vertical striping like that of the Eurasian eagle-owl, while long-eared owls in North America show a more horizontal striping like that of great horned owls. Whether these are examples of mimicry either way is unclear but it is known that both "Bubo" owls are serious predators of long-eared owls. The same discrepancy in underside streaking has also been noted in the Eurasian and American representations of the grey owl. A few other related species overlap minimally in range in Asia, mainly in East Asia and the southern reaches of the Eurasian eagle-owl’s range. Three fish owls appear to overlap in range, the brown ("Ketupa zeylonensis") in at least northern Pakistan, probably Kashmir, and discontinuously in southern Turkey, the tawny ("K. flavipes") through much of eastern China, and Blakiston's fish owl in the Russian Far East, northeastern China, and Hokkaido. Fish owls are distinctively different looking, possessing more scraggy ear tufts that hang to the side rather than sit erect on top of the head, and generally have more uniform, brownish plumages without the contrasting darker streaking of an eagle-owl. The brown fish owl has no feathering on the tarsus or feet, and the tawny has feathering only on the upper portion of the tarsi, but the Blakiston’s is nearly as extensively feathered on the tarsi and feet as the eagle-owl. Tawny and brown fish owls are both slightly smaller than co-occurring Eurasian eagle-owls, and Blakiston’s fish owls are similar or slightly larger than co-occurring large northern eagle-owls. Fish owls, being tied to the edges of fresh water, where they hunt mainly fish and crabs, also have slightly differing, and more narrow, habitat preferences.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: In the lower Himalayas of northern Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir, along with the brown fish owl, the Eurasian eagle-owl at the limit of its distribution may co-exist with at least two to three other eagle-owls. One of these, the dusky eagle-owl ("B. coromandus") is smaller, with more uniform tan-brownish plumage, untidy uniform light streaking rather than the Eurasian’s dark streaking below and an even less well-defined facial disc. The dusky is usually found in slightly more enclosed woodland areas than Eurasian eagle-owls. Another is possibly the spot-bellied eagle-owl ("B. nipalensis"), which is strikingly different looking, with stark brown plumage, rather than the warm hues typical of the Eurasian, bold spotting on a whitish background on the belly, and somewhat askew ear tufts that are bold white with light brown crossbars on the front. Both species may occur in some parts of the Himalayan foothills, but they are not currently verified to occur in the same area, in part because of the spot-bellied’s preference for dense, primary forest. Most similar, with basically the same habitat preferences and the only one verified to co-occur with the Eurasian eagle-owls of the race "B. b. turcomanus" in Kashmir is the Indian eagle-owl ("B. bengalensis"). The Indian species is smaller, with a bolder, blackish facial disc border, more rounded and relatively smaller wings, and partially unfeathered toes. Far to the west, the pharaoh eagle-owl ("B. ascalaphus") also seemingly overlaps in range with the Eurasian, at least in Jordan. Although also relatively similar to the Eurasian eagle-owl, the pharaoh eagle-owl is distinguished by its smaller size, paler, more washed-out plumage, and the diminished size of its ear tufts.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The Eurasian eagle-owls’ feathers are lightweight and robust, but nevertheless need to be replaced periodically as they become worn. In the Eurasian eagle-owl, this happens in stages, and the first moult starts the year after hatching with some body feathers and wing coverts being replaced. The next year, the three central secondaries on each wing and three middle tail feathers are shed and regrow, and the following year, two or three primaries and their coverts are lost. In the final year of this postjuvenile moult, the remaining primaries are moulted and all the juvenile feathers will have been replaced. Another moult takes place during years 6-12 of the bird's life. This happens between June and October after the conclusion of the breeding season, and again it is a staged process with six to nine main flight feathers being replaced each year. Such a moulting pattern lasting several years is repeated throughout the bird's life.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The Eurasian eagle-owl was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his "Systema Naturae" under the binomial name "Strix bulbo". Although Linnaeus specified the "habitat" as "Europa" the type locality is restricted to Sweden. The Eurasian eagle-owl is now placed in the genus "Bubo" that was introduced by André Duméril in 1805.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The genus "Bubo" with 20 extant species includes most of the larger owl species in the world today. Based on an extensive fossil record and a central distribution of extant species on that continent, "Bubo" appears to have evolved into existence in Africa, although early radiations seem to branch from southern Asia, as well. Two genera belonging to the scops owls complex, the giant scops owls ("Otus gurneyi") found in Asia and the "Ptilopsis" or the white-faced scops owl found in Africa, although firmly ensconced in the scops owl group, appear to share some characteristics with the eagle-owls. The "Strix" genus is also related to "Bubo", and is considered a "sister complex", with "Pulsatrix" possibly being intermediate between the two. The Eurasian eagle-owl appears to represent an expansion of the genus "Bubo" into the Eurasian continent. A few of the other species of "Bubo" seem to have been derived from the Eurasian eagle-owl, making it a "paraspecies", or they at least share a relatively recent common ancestor.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The pharaoh eagle-owl, distributed in the Arabian Peninsula and sections of the Sahara Desert through North Africa where rocky outcrops are found, was until recently considered a subspecies of the Eurasian eagle-owl. The pharaoh eagle-owl apparently differs about 3.8% in mitochondrial DNA from the Eurasian eagle-owl, well past the minimum genetic difference to differentiate species of 1.5%. Smaller and paler than Eurasian eagle-owls, the pharaoh eagle-owl can also be considered a distinct species largely due to its higher-pitched and more descending call, and the observation that Eurasian eagle-owls formerly found in Morocco ("B. b. hispanus") apparently did not breed with the co-existing pharaoh eagle-owls. On the contrary, the race still found together with the pharaoh eagle-owl in the wild ("B. b. interpositus") in the central Middle East has been found to interbreed in the wild with the pharaoh eagle-owl, although genetical materials have indicated "B. b. interpositus" may itself be a distinct species from the Eurasian eagle-owl, as it differs from the nominate subspecies of the Eurasian eagle-owl by 2.8% in mitochondrial DNA. For three Asian Eurasian eagle-owl subspecies ("B. b. ussuriensis", "B. b. kiautschensis" and "B. b. hemachlana", respectively), it was found that they met the criterion for subspecies well, with a high haplotype diversity and in spite of a relatively recent common ancestor and low genetic diversity. The Indian eagle-owl ("B. bengalensis") was also considered a subspecies of the Eurasian eagle-owl until recently, but its smaller size, distinct voice (more clipped and high-pitched than the Eurasian), and the fact that it is largely allopatric in distribution (filling out the Indian subcontinent) with other Eurasian eagle-owl races has led to it being considered a distinct species. The mitochondrial DNA of the Indian species also appears considerably distinct from the Eurasian species. The Cape eagle-owl ("B. capensis") appears to represent a return of this genetic line back into the African continent, where it leads a lifestyle similar to Eurasian eagle-owls, albeit far to the south. Another offshoot of the northern "Bubo" group is the snowy owl. It appears to have separated from other "Bubo" species at least 4 million years ago.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The fourth and most famous derivation of the evolutionary line that includes the Eurasian eagle-owl is the great horned owl, which appears to have been the result of primitive eagle-owls spreading into North America. According to some authorities, the great horned owls and Eurasian eagle-owls are barely distinct as species, with a similar level of divergence in their plumages as the Eurasian and North American representations of the great grey owl or the long-eared owl. More outward physical differences exist between the great horned owl and the Eurasian eagle-owl than in those two examples, including a great size difference favoring the Eurasian species, the great horned owl’s horizontal rather than vertical underside barring, yellow rather than orange eyes, and a much stronger black bracket to the facial disc, not to mention a number of differences in their reproductive behaviour and distinctive voices. Furthermore, genetic research has revealed that the snowy owl is more closely related to the great horned owl than are Eurasian eagle-owls. The most closely related species beyond the pharaoh, Indian, and Cape eagle-owls to the Eurasian eagle-owl is the smaller, less powerful and African spotted eagle-owl ("B. africanus"), which was likely to have divided from the line before they radiated away from Africa. Somehow, genetic materials indicate the spotted eagle-owl appears to share a more recent ancestor with the Indian eagle-owl than with the Eurasian eagle-owl or even the sympatric Cape eagle-owl. Eurasian eagle-owls in captivity have produced apparently healthy hybrids with both the Indian eagle-owl and the great horned owl. The pharaoh, Indian, and Cape eagle-owls and the great horned owl are all broadly similar in size to each other, but all are considerably smaller than the Eurasian eagle-owl, which averages at least 15–30% larger in linear dimensions and 30–50% larger in body mass than these other related species, possibly as the eagle-owls adapted to warmer climates and smaller prey. Fossils from southern France have indicated that during the Middle Pleistocene, Eurasian eagle-owls (this paleosubspecies is given the name "B. b. davidi") were larger than they are today, even larger were those found in Azerbaijan and in the Caucasus (either "B. b. bignadensis" or "B. bignadensis"), which were deemed to date to the Late Pleistocene. About 12 subspecies are recognized today.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: Eagle-owls are distributed somewhat sparsely, but can potentially inhabit a wide range of habitats, with a partiality for irregular topography. They have been found in habitats as diverse as northern coniferous forests to the edge of vast deserts. Essentially, Eurasian eagle-owls have been found living in almost every climatic and environmental condition on the Eurasian continent, excluding the greatest extremities, i.e. they are absent from humid rainforest in Southeast Asia, and the high Arctic tundra, both of which they are more or less replaced by other species of "Bubo" owls. They are often found in the largest numbers in areas where cliffs and ravines are surrounded by a scattering of trees and bushes. Grassland areas such as alpine meadows or desert-like steppe can also host them so long as they have the cover and protection of rocky areas. The preference of eagle-owls for places with irregular topography has been reported in most known studies. The obvious benefit of such nesting locations is that both nests and daytime roosts located in rocky areas and/or steep slopes would be less accessible to predators, including man. Also, they may be attracted to the vicinity of riparian or wetlands areas, because the soft soil of wet areas is conducive to burrowing by the small, terrestrial mammals normally preferred in the diet, such as voles and rabbits.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: Due to their preference for rocky areas, the species is often found in mountainous areas, and can be found up to elevations of in the Alps, in the Himalayas, and in the adjacent Tibetan Plateau. They can also be found living at sea level and may nest amongst rocky sea cliffs. Despite their success in areas such as subarctic zones and mountains that are frigid for much of the year, warmer conditions seem to result in more successful breeding attempts per studies in the Eifel region of Germany. In a study from Spain, areas primarily consisting of woodlands (52% of study area being forested) were preferred with pine trees predominating the oaks in habitats used, as opposed to truly mixed pine-oak woodland. Pine and other coniferous stands are often preferred in great horned owls, as well, due to the constant density, which make overlooking the large birds more likely. In mountainous forest, they are not generally found in enclosed wooded areas, as is the tawny owl ("Strix alucco"), instead usually near forest edge. Only 2.7% of the habitat included in the territorial ranges for eagle-owls per the habitat study in Spain consisted of cultivated or agricultural land. Compared to golden eagles, though, they can visit cultivated land more regularly in hunting forays due to their nocturnal habits, which allow them to largely evade human activity. Other accounts make clear that farmland is only frequented where its less intensively farmed, holds more extensive treed and bushy areas, and often has limited to no irrigation; farmland areas with fallow or abandoned fields are more likely to hold


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: more prey, so are prone to less frequent human disturbance. In the Italian Alps, almost no pristine habitat remained, and eagle-owls nested locally in the vicinity of towns, villages, and ski resorts.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: Although found in the largest numbers in areas sparsely populated by humans, farmland is sometimes inhabited, and they even have been observed living in park-like or other quiet settings within European cities. Since 2005, at least five pairs have nested in Helsinki. This is due in part to feral European rabbits ("Oryctolagus cuniculus") having recently populated the Helsinki area, originally from pet rabbits released to the wild. The number is expected to increase due to the growth of the European rabbit population in Helsinki. European hares ("Lepus europaeus"), the often preferred prey species by biomass of the eagle-owls in their natural habitat, live only in rural areas of Finland, not in the city centre. In June 2007, an eagle-owl nicknamed 'Bubi' landed in the crowded Helsinki Olympic Stadium during the European Football Championship qualification match between Finland and Belgium. The match was interrupted for six minutes. After tiring of the match, following Jonathan Johansson's opening goal for Finland, the bird left the scene. Finland's national football team have had the nickname "Huuhkajat" (Finnish for "Eurasian eagle-owls") ever since. The owl was named "Helsinki Citizen of the Year" in December 2007. In 2020, a brood of three eagle-owl chicks was raised by their mother on a large, well-foliaged planter on an apartment window in the city centre of Geel, Belgium.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The Eurasian eagle-owl is one of the most widely distributed of all owl species, although it is far less wide-ranging than the barn owl, the short-eared owl ("Asio flammeus") and long-eared owl and lacks the circumpolar range of boreal species such as great grey owl, boreal owl and northern hawk owl ("Surnia ulula"). This eagle-owl reaches its westernmost range in the Iberian peninsula, both almost throughout Spain and more spottily in Portugal. From there, the Eurasian eagle-owl ranges widely in the south of France from Toulouse to Monaco and as far north into the central part of the country as in Allier. Farther north, they are found sporadically and discontinuously in Luxembourg, southern and western Belgium and scarcely into the Netherlands. It is infrequently found in southern and central United Kingdom. In Germany, the eagle-owl can be found in large but highly discontinuous areas, mostly in the south and central areas but is almost entirely absent in areas such as Brandenburg. Across from its south German range, this species range is nearly continuous into the Czech Republic, Slovakia, northern and eastern Hungary and very spottily into Poland. In the fairly montane countries of Switzerland and Austria, the eagle-owl can be found fairly broadly. In Italy, the Eurasian eagle-owl is found where the habitat is favorable in much of the northern, western and central portions down to as far south Melito di Porto Salvo. From Italy, this species sweeps quite broadly along the Mediterranean coast in Southeastern Europe from Slovenia mostly continuously to most of Greece and Bulgaria. In eastern Europe, the Eurasian eagle-owl is found essentially throughout from central Romania to Estonia. The species also occupies a majority of Scandinavia, most broadly in Norway and subarctic Finland (more spottily in Sweden) and much of Denmark.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The Eurasian eagle-owl's range in Russia is truly massive, with the species apparently nearly unbound by habitat, with their distribution only excluding them from the true Arctic zone, i.e. their range stops around the tree line. If not the most densely populated species, they almost certainly stand as Russia's most widely distributed owl species. From Russia, they are found throughout Central Asia, residing continuously in each nation from Kazakhstan down to Afghanistan. In Asia Minor, they are found broadly in Georgia, Azerbaijan and somewhat so in western and southern Turkey but is quite sporadic in distribution overall in Turkey. A spotty range also exists in the Middle East in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and western Iran, the species being found broadly only in north and western Iran. In South Asia, the Eurasian eagle-owl is found mostly often in northern Pakistan, northern Nepal and Bhutan and more marginally into far northern India. This species resides throughout Mongolia, almost the entirety of China (mainly absent only from southern Yunnan and southern Guangxi). From China and eastern Russia, the Eurasian eagle-owl is found throughout Korea, Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and rarely into Japan in northern Hokkaido. Besides the Kurils, the farthest eastern part of the range for this species is in Magadan in the Russian Far East.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The Eurasian eagle-owl is largely nocturnal in activity, as are most owl species, with its activity focused in the first few hours after sunset and the last few hours before sunrise. In the northern stretches of its range, partial diurnal behaviour has been recorded, including active hunting in broad daylight during the late afternoon. In such areas, full nightfall is essentially non-existent at the peak of summer, so eagle-owls must presumably hunt and actively brood at the nest during daylight. The Eurasian eagle-owl has a number of vocalizations that are used at different times. It will usually select obvious topographic features such as rocky pinnacles, stark ridges and mountain peaks to use as regular song posts. These are dotted along the outer edges of the eagle-owl's territory and they are visited often but only for a few minutes at a time.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: Vocal activity is almost entirely confined to the colder months from late fall through winter, with vocal activity in October through December mainly having territorial purposes and from January to February being primarily oriented towards courtship and mating purposes. Vocalizations in a Spanish study begin no sooner than 29 minutes after sunset and end no later than 55 minutes before sunrise. The territorial song, which can be heard at great distance, is a deep resonant "ooh-hu" with emphasis on the first syllable for the male, and a more high-pitched and slightly more drawn-out "uh-hu" for the female. It is not uncommon for a pair to perform an antiphonal duet. The widely used name in Germany as well as some other sections of Europe for this species is "uhu" due to its song. At 250–350 Hz, the Eurasian eagle-owls territorial song or call is deeper, farther-carrying and is often considering "more impressive" than the territorial songs of the great horned owl or even that of the slightly larger Blakiston's fish owl, although the horned owl’s call averages slightly longer in duration. Other calls include a rather faint, laughter-like "OO-OO-oo" and a harsh "kveck-kveck". Intruding eagle-owls and other potential dangers may be met with a "terrifying", extremely loud "hooo". Raucous barks not unlike those of ural owls or long-eared owls have been recorded but are deeper and more powerful than those species’ barks. Annoyance at close quarters is expressed by bill-clicking and cat-like spitting, and a defensive posture involves lowering the head, ruffling the back feathers, fanning the tail and spreading the wings.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The Eurasian eagle-owl rarely assumes the so-called "tall-thin position", which is when an owl adopts an upright stance with plumage closely compressed and may stand tightly beside a tree trunk. Among others, the long-eared owl is among the most often reported to sit with this pose. The great horned owl has been more regularly recorded using the tall-thin, if not as consistently as some "Strix" and "Asio" owls, and it is commonly thought to aid camouflage if encountering a threatening or novel animal or sound. The Eurasian eagle-owl is a broad-winged species and engages in a strong, direct flight, usually consisting of shallow wing beats and long, surprisingly fast glides. It has, unusually for an owl, also been known to soar on updrafts on rare occasions. The latter method of flight has led them to be mistaken for "Buteos", which are smaller and quite differently proportioned. Usually when seen flying during the day, it is due to being disturbed or displaced from its roost by humans or mobbing animals, such as crows. Eurasian eagle-owls are highly sedentary, normally maintaining a single territory throughout their adult lives.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: Eurasian eagle-owl are considered a completely non-migratory bird, as are all members of the "Bubo" genus excluding the snowy owl. Even those near the northern limits of their range, where winters are harsh and likely to bear little in food, the eagle-owl does not leave its native range. In 2020, a study presented evidence of a short distance distribution by adult eagle-owls in the fall subsequent to breeding, with 5 adults found to move over away from their nests. There are additionally claimed cases from Russia of Eurasian eagle-owls moving south for the winter, as the icebound, infamously harsh climate there may be too severe even for these hardy birds and their prey. Similarly, Eurasian eagle-owls living in the Tibetan highlands and Himalayas may in some ancedotal cases vacate their normal territories when winter hits and move south. In both of those examples, these are old, unverified reports and there is no evidence whatsoever of consistent, annual migration by Eurasian eagle-owls and the birds may eke out a living on their normal territories even in the sparsest times.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: Eurasian eagle-owls are strictly territorial and will defend their territories from interloping eagle-owls year around, but territorial calling appears to peak around October to early January. Territory size is similar or occasionally slightly greater than great horned owl: averaging . Territories are established by the male eagle-owl, who selected the highest points in the territory from which to sing. The high prominence of singing perches allows their song to be heard at greater distances and lessens the need for potentially dangerous physical confrontations in the areas where territories may meet. Nearly as important in territorial behaviour as vocalization is the white throat patch. When taxidermied specimens with flared white throats were placed around the perimeter of eagle-owl territories, male eagle-owls reacted quite strongly and often attacked the stuffed owl, reacting more mildly to a stuffed eagle-owl with a non-flared white throat. Females were less likely to be aggressive to mounted specimens and did not seem to vary in their response whether exposed to the specimens with or without the puffed up white patch. In January and February, the primary function for vocalization becomes for the purpose of courtship. More often than not, eagle-owls will pair for life but usually engage in courtship rituals annually, most likely to re-affirm pair bonds. When calling for the purposes of courtship, males tend to bow and hoot loudly but do so in a less contorted manner than the male great horned owl. Courtship in the Eurasian eagle-owl may involve bouts of "duetting", with the male sitting upright and the female bowing as she calls. There may be mutual bowing, billing and fondling before the female flies to a perch where coitus occurs, usually taking place several times over the course of a few minutes.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The male selects breeding sites and advertises their potential to the female by flying to them and kneading out a small depression (if soil is present) and making staccato notes and clucking noises. Several potential sites may be presented, with the female selecting one. In Baden-Wurttenberg, Germany, the amount of male nest site visits were found to increase in time spent over the pre-laying breeding season from a mean of 29 minutes to 3 hours with frequent incubation like sitting by the male. Like all owls, Eurasian eagle-owls do not build nests or add material but nest on the surface or material already present. Eurasian eagle-owls normally nest on rocks or boulders, most often utilizing cliff ledges and steep slopes, as well as crevices, gullies, holes or caves. Rocky areas that also prove concealing woodlots as well as, for hunting purposes, that border river valleys and grassy scrubland may be especially attractive. If only low rubble is present, they will nest on the ground between rocks. Often, in more densely forested areas, they've been recorded nesting on the ground, often among roots of trees, under large bushes and under fallen tree trunks. Steep slopes with dense vegetation are preferred if nesting on the ground, although some ground nests are surprisingly exposed or in flat spots such as in open spots of the taiga, steppe, ledges of river banks and between wide tree trunks. All Eurasian eagle-owl nests in the largely forested Altai Krai region of Russia were found to be on the ground, usually at the base of pines. This species does not often use other bird’s nests as does the great horned owl, which often prefers nests built by other animals over any other nesting site. The Eurasian eagle-owl has been recorded in singular cases using nests built by common buzzards ("Buteo buteo"), golden eagle, greater spotted ("Clanga clanga") and white-tailed eagles ("Haliaeetus albicilla"), common ravens ("Corvus corax") and black storks ("Ciconia nigra"). Among the eagle-owls of the fairly heavily wooded wildlands of Belarus, they more commonly utilize nests built by other birds than most eagle-owls, i.e. stork or accipitrid nests, but a majority of nests are still located on the ground. This is contrary to the indication that ground nests are selected only if rocky areas or other bird nests are unavailable, as many will utilize ground nests even where large bird nests seem to be accessible. Tree holes being used for nesting sites are even more rarely recorded than nests constructed by other birds. While it may be assumed that the eagle-owl is too large to utilize tree hollows, when other large species like the great grey owl have never been recorded nesting in one, the even more robust Blakiston's fish owl nests exclusively in cavernous hollows. The Eurasian eagle-owl often uses the same nest site year after year.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: In Engadin, Switzerland, the male eagle-owl hunts until the young are 4 to 5 weeks old and the female spends all her time brooding at the nest. After this point, the female gradually resumes hunting from both herself and the young and thus provides a greater range of food for the young. While it may seem contrary to the species’ highly territorial nature, there is one verified cases of polygamy in Germany, with a male apparently mating with two females, and cooperative brooding in Spain, with a third adult of undetermined sex helping a breeding pair care for the chicks. The response of Eurasian eagle-owls to humans approaching at the nest is quite variable. The species is often rather less aggressive than some other owls, including related species like the spot-bellied eagle-, great horned and snowy owls, many of the northern "Strix" species and even some rather smaller owl species, which often fearlessly attack any person found to be nearing their nests. Occasionally, if a person climbs to an active nest, the adult female eagle-owl will do a distraction display, in which they feign an injury. This is an uncommon behaviour in most owls and most often associated with small birds trying to falsely drawl the attention of potential predators away from their offspring. More commonly, the female flies off and abandons her nest temporarily, leaving the eggs or small nestlings exposed, when a human approaches it. Occasionally, if cornered both adults and nestlings will do an elaborate threat display, also rare in owls in general, in which the eagle-owls raise their wings into a semi-circle and puff up their feathers, followed by a snapping of their bills. Apparently eagle-owls of uncertain and probably exotic origin in Britain are likely to react aggressively to humans approaching the nest. Also, aggressive encounters involving eagle-owls around their nest, despite being historically rare, apparently have increased in recent decades in Scandinavia. The discrepancy of aggressiveness at the nest between the Eurasian eagle-owl and its Nearctic counterpart may be correlated to variation in the extent of nest predation that the species endured during the evolutionary process.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The eggs are normally laid at intervals of three days and are incubated only by the female. Laying generally begins in late winter but may be later in the year in colder habitats. During the incubation period, the female is brought food at the nest by her mate. A single clutch of white eggs is laid; each egg can measure from long by in width, and will usually weigh about . In Central Europe, eggs average , and in Siberia, eggs average . Their eggs are only slightly larger than those of snowy owls and the nominate subspecies of great horned owl, while similar in size to those of spot-bellied eagle-owls and Blakiston's fish owls. The Eurasian eagle-owl’s eggs are noticeably larger than those of Indian eagle-owl and pharaoh eagle-owls. Usually clutch size is one or two, rarely three or four, and exceptionally to six. The average number of eggs laid varies with latitude in Europe. Clutch size ranges from 2.02 to 2.14 in Spain and the massifs of France, and 1.82 to 1.89 in central Europe and the eastern Alps; in Sweden and Finland, the mean clutch size is 1.56 and 1.87, respectively. While variation based on climate is not unusual for different wide-ranging palearctic species, the higher clutch size of western Mediterranean eagle-owls is also probably driven by the presence of lagomorphs in the diet, which provide high nutritional value than most other regular prey. The average clutch size, attributed as 2.7, was the lowest of any European owl per one study. One species was attributed with an even lower clutch size in North America, the great grey owl with a mean of 2.6, but the mean clutch size was much higher for the same species in Europe, at 4.05.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: In Spain, incubation is from mid-January to mid-March, hatching and early nestling period is from late March to early April, fledging and postfledging dependence can range from mid-April to August, and territorial/courtship is anytime hereafter; i.e. the period between the beginning of juvenile dispersal to egg laying; from September to early January. The same general date parameters were followed in southern France. In the Italian Alps, the mean egg-laying date was similarly February 27, but the young were more likely to be dependent later, as all fledglings were still being cared for by the end of August, and some even lingered under parental care until October. In northern climes, the breeding season shifts somewhat later by as much as a month so that egg laying may be as late as late March or early April. Nonetheless, the Eurasian eagle-owl is one of the earliest nesting bird species in Europe or northern, temperate Asia.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The first egg hatches after 31 to 36 days of incubation. The eggs hatch successively; although the average interval between egg-laying is 3 days, the young tend to hatch no more than a day or two apart. Like all owls that nest in the open, the downy young are often a mottled grey with some white and buff, which provides camouflage. They open their eyes at 4 days of age. The chicks grow rapidly, being able to consume small prey whole after roughly 3 weeks. In Andalusia, the most noticeable development of the young before they leave the nest was the increase of body size, which was the highest growth rate of any studied owl and faster than either snowy or great horned owls. Body mass increased fourteen times over from 5 days old to 60 days old in this study. The male continues to bring prey, leaving it on or around the nest, and the female feeds the nestlings, tearing up the food into suitably sized pieces. The female resumes hunting after about 3 weeks, which increases the food supply to the chicks. Siblicide has been recorded widely in Eurasian eagle-owls, and according to some authorities, is almost a rule in the species. Many nesting attempts produce two fledglings, indicating that siblicide is not as common as in other birds of prey, especially some eagles. In Spain, males are thought to be the first egg laid to reduce the likelihood of sibling aggression due to the size difference, thus the younger female hatchling is less likely to be killed, since it is similar in size to its older sibling.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: Apparently, the point at which the chicks venture out of the nest is driven by the location of the nest. In elevated nest sites, chicks usually wander out of the nest at 5 to as late as 7 weeks of age, but have been recorded leaving the nest if the nest is on the ground as early as 22 to 25 days old. The chicks can walk well at 5 weeks of age and by 7 weeks are taking short flights. Hunting and flying skills are not tested prior to the young eagle-owls leaving the nest. Young Eurasian eagle-owls leave the nest by 5–6 weeks of age and typically can be flying weakly (a few metres) by about 7–8 weeks of age. Normally, they are cared for at least another month. By the end of the month, the young eagle-owls are quite assured fliers. A few cases have been confirmed of adult eagle-owls in Spain feeding and caring for postfledgling juvenile eagle-owls that were not their own.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: A study from southern France found the mean number of fledglings per nest was 1.67. In central Europe, the mean number of fledglings per nest was between 1.8 and 1.9. The mean fledgling rate in the Italian Alps was 1.89, thus being similar. In the Italian Alps, heavier rainfall during breeding decreased fledgling success because it inhibited the ability of the parents to hunt and potentially exposed nestlings to hypothermia. In the reintroduced population of eagle-owls in Eifel, Germany, occupied territories produced an average of 1.17 fledglings, but not all occupying pairs attempted to breed, with about 23% of those attempting to breed being unsuccessful. In slightly earlier studies, possibly due to higher persecution rates, the mean number of young leaving the nest was often lower, such as 1.77 in Bavaria, Germany, 1.1 in lower Austria, and 0.6 in southern Sweden. An experimental supplemental feeding program to young eagle-owls on two small Norwegian islands were found to increase mean numbers of fledglings from a mean of about 1.2 to 1.7 despite evidence that increased human activity near the nest decreased owlet survivability. While sibling owls are close in the stage between leaving the nest and fully fledged, about 20 days after leaving the nest, the family unit seems to dissolve and the young disperse quickly and directly. All told, the dependence of young eagle-owls on their parents lasts for 20 to 24 weeks. Independence in central Europe is from September to November. The young leave their parents' care normally on their own, but are also sometimes chased away by their parents. The young Eurasian eagle-owls reach sexual maturity by the following year, but do not normally breed until they can establish a territory at around 2–3 years old. Until they are able to establish their own territories, young eagle-owls spend their lives as nomadic "floaters", and while they also call, select inconspicuous perch sites unlike breeding birds. Male floaters are especially wary about intrusion into an established territory to avoid potential conspecific aggression.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The Eurasian eagle-owl has a very wide range across much of Europe and Asia, estimated to be about . In Europe, the population is estimated at 19,000 to 38,000 breeding pairs, and in the whole world around 250,000 to 2,500,000 individual birds. The population trend is thought to be decreasing because of human activities, but with such a large range and large total population, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the bird as being of least concern. Although roughly equal in adaptability and wideness of distribution, the great horned owl, with a total estimated population up to 5.3 million individuals, apparently has a total population that is roughly twice that of the Eurasian eagle-owl. Numerous factors, including a shorter history of systematic persecution, lesser sensitivity to human disturbance while nesting, somewhat greater ability to adapt to marginal habitats and widespread urbanization, and slightly smaller territories may play into the horned owls greater numbers in modern times. Eurasian eagle-owls are listed in Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meaning international trade (including in parts and derivatives) is regulated.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The Eurasian eagle-owl surely is one of the longest-living owls on average. The eagle-owl can live for up to 20 years in the wild. At one time, the oldest ringed eagle-owl was considered a 19-year-old specimen. Some studies posited that in protected areas, lifespans ranging up to 15–20 years may not be uncommon. A record-breaking specimen banded in the wild was subsequently found to survive to be 27 years and 9 months old. Like many other bird species in captivity, they can live much longer without having to endure difficult natural conditions, and have possibly survived up to 68 years in zoo collections. Healthy adults normally have no natural predators, thus are considered apex predators. The leading causes of death for this species are man-made; electrocution, traffic accidents, and shooting frequently claim the lives of eagle-owls.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: Electrocution was the greatest cause of mortality in 68% of 25 published studies, and accounted, on average, for 38.2% of the reported eagle-owl deaths. This was particularly true in the Italian Alps, where the number of dangerous, uninsulated pylons near nests was extremely high, but is highly problematic almost throughout the species’ European distribution. In one telemetry study, 55% of 27 dispersing young were electrocuted within 1 year of their release from captivity, while electrocution rates of wild-born young are even higher. Mortality in the Swiss Rhine Valley was variable, in radio-tagged, released individuals, most died as a result of starvation (48%) rather than human-based causes, but 93% of the wild, untagged individuals found dead were due to human activities, 46% due to electrocution, and 43% due to collision with vehicles or trains. Insulation of pylons is thought to result in a stabilisation of the local population due to floaters taking up residence in unoccupied territories that formerly held deceased eagle-owls. Eurasian eagle-owls from Finland were found mainly to die due to electrocution (39%) and collisions with vehicles (22%). Wind turbine collisions can also be a serious cause of mortality locally.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: Eagle-owls have been singled out historically as a threat to game species, thus to the economic well-being of landowners, game-keepers, and even governmental agencies, and as such, have been singled out for widespread persecution. Local extinctions of Eurasian eagle-owls have been primarily due to persecution. Examples of this include northern Germany in 1830, the Netherlands sometimes in the late 19th century, Luxembourg in 1903, Belgium in 1943, and central and western Germany in the 1960s. In trying to determine causes of death for 1476 eagle-owls from Spain, most were unknown and undetermined types of trauma. The largest group that could be determined, 411 birds, was due to collisions, more than half of which were from electrocution, while 313 were due to persecution, and merely 85 were directly attributable to natural causes. Clearly, while pylon safety is perhaps the most serious factor to be addressed in Spain, persecution continues to be a massive problem for Spanish eagle-owls. Of seven European nations where modern Eurasian eagle-owl mortality is well-studied, continual persecution is by far the largest problem in Spain, although also continues to be serious (often comprising at least half of studied mortality) in France. From France and Spain, nearly equal numbers of eagle-owls are poisoned (for which raptors might not be the main target), or shot intentionally.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: While the eagle-owl remains reasonably numerous in some parts of its habitat where nature is still relatively little disturbed by human activity, such as the sparsely populated regions of Russia and Scandinavia, concern has been expressed about the future of the Eurasian eagle-owl in Western and Central Europe. There, very few areas are not heavily modified by human civilisation, thus exposing the birds to the risk of collisions with deadly man-made objects (e.g. pylons) and a depletion of native prey numbers due to ongoing habitat degradation and urbanisation.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: In Spain, long-term governmental protection of the Eurasian eagle-owl seems to have no positive effect on reducing the persecution of eagle-owls. Therefore, Spanish conservationists have recommended to boost education and stewardship programs to protect eagle-owls from direct killing by local residents. Unanimously, biologists studying eagle-owl mortality and conservation factors have recommended to proceed with the proper insulation of electric wires and pylons in areas where the species is present. As this measure is labour-intensive and therefore rather expensive, few efforts have actually been made to insulate pylons in areas with few fiscal resources devoted to conservation such as rural Spain. In Sweden, a mitigation project was launched to insulate transformers that are frequently damaged by eagle-owl electrocution.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: Large reintroduction programs were instituted in Germany after the eagle-owl was deemed extinct in the country as a breeding species by the 1960s, as a result of a long period of heavy persecution. The largest reintroduction there occurred from the 1970s to the 1990s in the Eifel region, near the border with Belgium and Luxembourg. The success of this measure, consisting in more than a thousand eagle-owls being reintroduced at an average cost of US$1,500 per bird, is a subject of controversy. Those eagle-owls reintroduced in the Eifel region appear to be able to breed successfully, and enjoy nesting success comparable with wild eagle-owls from elsewhere in Europe. Mortality levels in the Eifel region, though, appear to remain quite high due to anthropogenic factors. Also, concerns exist about a lack of genetic diversity of the species in this part of Germany. Apparently, the German reintroductions have allowed eagle-owls to repopulate neighbouring parts of Europe, as the breeding populations now occurring in the Low Countries (the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg) are believed to be the result of influx from regions further to the east. Smaller reintroductions have been done elsewhere, and the current breeding population in Sweden is believed to be primarily the result of a series of reintroductions. Conversely to numerous threats and declines incurred by Eurasian eagle-owls, areas where human-dependent, non-native prey species such as brown rats ("Rattus norvegicus") and rock pigeons ("Columba livia") have flourished, have given the eagle-owls a primary food source and allowed them occupy regions where they were once marginalized or absent.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: The Eurasian eagle-owl at one time occurred naturally in Great Britain. Some, including the RSPB, have claimed that it had disappeared about 10,000–9,000 years ago, after the last ice age, but fossil remains found in Meare Lake Village indicate the eagle-owl occurring as recently as roughly 2,000 years ago in the fossil record. The lack of presence of the Eurasian eagle-owl in British folklore or writings in recent millennium may indicate the lack of occurrence by this species there. The flooding of the land bridge between Britain and continental Europe may have been responsible for their extirpation as they only disperse over limited distances, although early human persecution presumably played a role as well. Some reportages of eagle-owls in Britain have been revealed to actually be great horned owls or Indian eagle-owls, the latter a particularly popular owl in falconry circuits. Some breeding pairs do still occur in Britain, though the exact number of pairs and individuals is not definitely known. The World Owl Trust stated that they believe some eagle-owls occurring in North England and Scotland are naturally occurring, making the flight of roughly from the west coast of Norway to Shetland and the east coast of Scotland, as well as possibly from the coasts of the Netherlands and Belgium to the south. Although not migratory, eagle-owls can disperse some notable distances in young birds seeking a territory.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: Prior studies of eagle-owl distribution have indicated a strong reluctance to cross large bodies of water in the species. Many authorities state that the Eurasian eagle-owls occurring in Britain are individuals that have escaped from captivity. While, until the 19th century, wealthy collectors may have released unwanted eagle-owls, despite press to the contrary, no evidence of any organization or individual intentionally releasing eagle-owls recently with the intent to establish a breeding population has been found. Many feel that the eagle-owl would be classified as an "alien" species. Due to its predatory abilities, many, especially those in the press, have expressed alarm of their effect on "native" species. From 1994 to 2007, 73 escaped eagle-owls were not registered as returned, while 50 escapees were recaptured. Several recorded breeding attempts have been studied, and most were unsuccessful, due in large part to incidental disturbance by humans and some due to direct persecution, with eggs having been smashed.


title: Eurasian eagle-owl

text: As highly opportunistic predators, Eurasian eagle-owls hunt almost any appropriately sized prey they encounter. Most often, they take whatever prey is locally common and can take a large number of species considered harmful to human financial interests, such as rats, mice, and pigeons. Eurasian eagle-owls do take rare or endangered species, as well. Among the species considered at least vulnerable (up to critically endangered as in the mink and eel, both heavily overexploited by humans) to extinction known to be hunted by Eurasian eagle-owls are Russian desman ("Desmana moschata") Pyrenean desman ("Galemys pyrenaicus"), barbastelle ("Barbastella barbastellus"), European ground squirrel ("Spermophilus citellus"), southwestern water vole ("Arvicola sapidus"), European mink ("Mustela lutreola"), marbled polecat ("Vormela peregusna"), lesser white-fronted goose ("Anser erythrops"), Egyptian vulture ("Neophron percnopterus"), greater spotted eagle ("Clanga clanga"), eastern imperial eagle ("Aquila heliaca"), saker falcon ("Falco cherrug"), houbara bustard ("Chlamydotis undulata"), great bustard ("Otis tarda"), spur-thighed tortoise ("Testudo graeca"), Atlantic cod ("Gadus morhua"), European eel ("Anguilla anguilla") and lumpfish ("Cyclopterus lumpus").


title: Close front rounded vowel

text: The close front rounded vowel, or high front rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is /y/, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is codice_1. Across many languages, it is most commonly represented orthographically as (in German, Turkish, Estonian and Hungarian) or (in Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and Albanian) but also as (in French and Dutch and the Kernewek Kemmyn standard of Cornish); / (in the romanization of various Asian languages); (in Cyrillic-based writing systems such as that for Chechen); or (in Cyrillic-based writing systems such as that for Tatar).


title: Close front rounded vowel

text: Short and long occurred in pre-Modern Greek. In the Attic and Ionic dialects of Ancient Greek, front developed by fronting from back around the 6th to 7th century BC. A little later, the diphthong when not before another vowel monophthongized and merged with long . In Koine Greek, the diphthong changed to , likely through the intermediate stages and . Through vowel shortening in Koine Greek, long merged with short . Later, unrounded to , yielding the pronunciation of Modern Greek. For more information, see the articles on Ancient Greek and Koine Greek phonology.


title: Close front rounded vowel

text: The close front rounded vowel is the vocalic equivalent of the labialized palatal approximant . alternates with in certain languages, such as French, and in the diphthongs of some languages, with the non-syllabic diacritic and are used in different transcription systems to represent the same sound.


title: Close front rounded vowel

text: In most languages, this rounded vowel is pronounced with compressed lips ('exolabial'). However, in a few cases the lips are protruded ('endolabial').


title: Close front rounded vowel

text: The close front compressed vowel is typically transcribed in IPA simply as , and that is the convention used in this article. There is no dedicated diacritic for compression in the IPA. However, the compression of the lips can be shown with the letter as (simultaneous and labial compression) or ( modified with labial compression). The spread-lip diacritic may also be used with a rounded vowel letter as an "ad hoc" symbol, though technically 'spread' means unrounded.


title: Close front rounded vowel

text: Because front rounded vowels are assumed to have compression, and few descriptions cover the distinction, some of the following may actually have protrusion.


title: Close front rounded vowel

text: Catford notes that most languages with rounded front and back vowels use distinct types of labialization, protruded back vowels and compressed front vowels. However, a few languages, such as Scandinavian ones, have protruded front vowels. One of these, Swedish, even contrasts the two types of rounding in front vowels (see near-close near-front rounded vowel, with Swedish examples of both types of rounding).


title: Close front rounded vowel

text: As there are no diacritics in the IPA to distinguish protruded and compressed rounding, an old diacritic for labialization, , will be used here as an "ad hoc" symbol for protruded front vowels. Another possible transcription is or (a close front vowel modified by endolabialization), but this could be misread as a diphthong.


title: Close front rounded vowel

text: Acoustically, this sound is "between" the more typical compressed close front vowel and the unrounded close front vowel .


title: Friday Night Dinner

text: British television sitcom written by Robert Popper and starring Tamsin Greig, Paul Ritter, Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal, and Mark Heap. The comedy is focused on the regular dinner experience of the middle-class British Jewish Goodman family every Friday night. The series aired from 2011 to 2020 on Channel 4. Following the conclusion of the sixth series and Paul Ritter's death in 2021, it was announced that the show would not return.


title: Friday Night Dinner

text: The show received two BAFTA nominations in 2012. The first series was nominated for Best Situation Comedy, while Greig was nominated for Best Female Comedy Performance. In 2021, for his performance in the final series of the show, Ritter received a posthumous BAFTA nomination for Best Male Comedy Performance.


title: Friday Night Dinner

text: "Friday Night Dinner" depicts Shabbat dinner in the middle-class secular Jewish Goodman family, reflecting writer and producer Robert Popper's own secular Jewish upbringing. It is set in suburban North London, and filmed there, in Mill Hill.


title: Friday Night Dinner

text: The family consists of mother Jackie (Tamsin Greig), father Martin (Paul Ritter), elder son and musician Adam (Simon Bird), and younger son and estate agent Jonny (Tom Rosenthal). The episodes follow the family as the sons arrive at the family home and proceed to their dinner, which is often interrupted by numerous things. Jackie is the straight character who tries to run a normal household, but is disrupted by the rest of the family. Most frequently, dinner is disrupted by Adam and Jonny pranking each other, for example by putting salt in each other's water glasses, or Martin's oddities – including walking around the house topless or eating out-of-date food and saying his catchphrase "shit on it". They are frequently interrupted by their strange but good-hearted neighbour Jim Bell (Mark Heap), who is attracted to Jackie and visits them due to his loneliness, in most cases accompanied by his dog, Wilson, of whom he is afraid. After Wilson's death at the end of series 5, Jim adopts a new dog who he names Milson.


title: Friday Night Dinner

text: Jackie's neurotic best friend, Valerie Lewis (Tracy-Ann Oberman), known as "Auntie Val" to Adam and Jonny, is a frequent visitor, as was Jackie's mother, Nellie Buller (Frances Cuka). Occasional guest appearances were made by Martin's mother, Cynthia Goodman (Rosalind Knight), referred to as Horrible Grandma due her cruel and condescending treatment of the Goodmans. Other guest appearances featured Nellie's suitor Mr Morris (Harry Landis) who appeared in three episodes while Valerie's husband, Larry (Steve Furst) briefly appears in two.


title: Friday Night Dinner

text: For the 10th anniversary of the show, a special 90-minute documentary episode aired on Channel 4 on 28 May 2021, entitled "Friday Night Dinner: Ten Years and A Lovely Bit of Squirrel". The documentary was dedicated to Paul Ritter, who had died seven weeks earlier.


title: Friday Night Dinner

text: In September 2011, "Deadline Hollywood" announced that Greg Daniels, who had adapted "The Office" for American television, would spearhead an American remake of the series for the broadcast network NBC. The remake was picked up for a pilot, written by Daniels and directed by Ken Kwapis and starring Allison Janney and Tony Shalhoub as the parents. The pilot did not go to series.


title: Friday Night Dinner

text: In 2016, a third attempt at an American remake was under development by CBS, with the title "Sunday Night Dinner".


title: Nate Bargatze

text: Nathanael Bargatze was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 25, 1979, the son of Carole and Stephen Bargatze. His father is of Italian descent and is a former clown who became an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker. Bargatze attended Donelson Christian Academy in Nashville, and then Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, taking speech and media classes.


title: Nate Bargatze

text: Bargatze began his stand-up comedy career at The Boston in New York City. He has appeared multiple times on shows such as "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" and "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", being one of the first to perform stand-up on the latter. He was part of Fallon's Clean Cut Comedy Tour in 2013, also winning New York's Comedy Festival and the Boston Comedy Festival that year. He wrote for the Spike TV Video Game Awards and has performed multiple times for American armed forces in Iraq and Kuwait. He was mentioned by Marc Maron as a "comic who should be big" and by Jim Gaffigan as one of the top up-and-coming comics.


title: Nate Bargatze

text: Bargatze's first stand-up album, "Yelled at by a Clown" (2014), made it onto the Billboard Top Ten Comedy Charts for two weeks, peaking at No. 2. He released his second album, "Full Time Magic", in coordination with his Comedy Central special in May 2015. In 2017, he had a half-hour special released on Netflix as part of "The Standups".


title: Nate Bargatze

text: In March 2019, Bargatze released an hour-long Netflix special titled "The Tennessee Kid". It was filmed outside Atlanta, Georgia. His most recent standup special, "The Greatest Average American", was released by Netflix in March 2021. It was filmed outdoors at Universal Studios Hollywood and was nominated for the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.


title: Nate Bargatze

text: Bargatze is the host of the "Nateland" podcast, which draws inspiration from "Seinfeld" as it often turns into a "podcast about nothing". The show also includes Aaron Webber, Brian Bates, and Dusty Slay. In 2022, he voiced a personality core named Grady in the short "Portal" spinoff game "Aperture Desk Job".


title: Nate Bargatze

text: Bargatze continues to reside in his native Nashville, Tennessee. He married Laura Baines on October 13, 2006. They have a daughter named Harper (born July 8, 2012).


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: In contrast to the Neoclassical perfectionism of his chief rival Ingres, Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance, with an attendant emphasis on colour and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modelled form. Dramatic and romantic content characterized the central themes of his maturity, and led him not to the classical models of Greek and Roman art, but to travel in North Africa, in search of the exotic. Friend and spiritual heir to Théodore Géricault, Delacroix was also inspired by Lord Byron, with whom he shared a strong identification with the "forces of the sublime", of nature in often violent action.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: However, Delacroix was given to neither sentimentality nor bombast, and his Romanticism was that of an individualist. In the words of Baudelaire, "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible." Together with Ingres, Delacroix is considered one of the last old Masters of painting, and one of the few who was ever photographed.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: As a painter and muralist, Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of colour profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. A fine lithographer, Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, the Scottish author Walter Scott and the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Eugène Delacroix was born on 26 April 1798 at Charenton-Saint-Maurice in Île-de-France, near Paris. His mother was named Victoire Oeben, the daughter of the cabinet-maker Jean-François Oeben.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: There are medical reasons to believe that Eugène's legitimate father, Charles-François Delacroix, was not able to procreate at the time of Eugène's conception.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Talleyrand, who was a friend of the family and successor of Charles Delacroix as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and whom the adult Eugène resembled in appearance and character, considered himself as his real father. After assuming his office as foreign minister, Talleyrand dispatched Delacroix to The Hague in the capacity of French ambassador to the then Batavian Republic. Delacroix who at the time suffered from erectile dysfunction returned to Paris in early September 1797, only to find his wife pregnant. Talleyrand went on to assist Eugène in the form of numerous anonymous commissions. Throughout his career as a painter, he was protected by Talleyrand, who served successively the Restoration and king Louis-Philippe, and ultimately as ambassador of France in Great Britain, and later by Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, duc de Morny, half-brother of Napoleon III and speaker of the French House of Commons. His legitimate father, Charles Delacroix, died in 1805, and his mother in 1814, leaving 16-year-old Eugène an orphan.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: His early education was at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen where he steeped himself in the classics and won awards for drawing. In 1815 he began his training with Pierre-Narcisse Guérin in the neoclassical style of Jacques-Louis David. An early church commission, "The Virgin of the Harvest" (1819), displays a Raphael-esque influence, but another such commission, "The Virgin of the Sacred Heart" (1821), evidences a freer interpretation. It precedes the influence of the more colourful and rich style of the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens, and fellow French artist Théodore Géricault, whose works marked an introduction to Romanticism in art.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: The impact of Géricault's "The Raft of the Medusa" was profound, and stimulated Delacroix to produce his first major painting, "The Barque of Dante", which was accepted by the Paris Salon in 1822. The work caused a sensation, and was largely derided by the public and officialdom, yet was purchased by the State for the Luxembourg Galleries; the pattern of widespread opposition to his work, countered by a vigorous, enlightened support, would continue throughout his life. Two years later he again achieved popular success for his "The Massacre at Chios".


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Delacroix's painting of the massacre at Chios shows sick, dying Greek civilians about to be slaughtered by the Turks. One of several paintings he made of this contemporary event, expressed the official policy for the Greek cause in their war of independence against the Turks, war sustained by English, Russian and French governments. Delacroix was quickly recognized by the authorities as a leading painter in the new Romantic style, and the picture was bought by the state. His depiction of suffering was controversial, however, as there was no glorious event taking place, no patriots raising their swords in valour as in David's "Oath of the Horatii", only a disaster. Many critics deplored the painting's despairing tone; the artist Antoine-Jean Gros called it "a massacre of art". The pathos in the depiction of an infant clutching its dead mother's breast had an especially powerful effect, although this detail was condemned as unfit for art by Delacroix's critics. A viewing of the paintings of John Constable and the watercolour sketches and art of Richard Parkes Bonnington prompted Delacroix to make extensive, freely painted changes to the sky and distant landscape.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Delacroix produced a second painting in support of the Greeks in their war for independence, this time referring to the capture of Missolonghi by Turkish forces in 1825. With a restraint of palette appropriate to the allegory, "Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi" displays a woman in Greek costume with her breast bared, arms half-raised in an imploring gesture before the horrible scene: the suicide of the Greeks, who chose to kill themselves and destroy their city rather than surrender to the Turks. A hand is seen at the bottom, the body having been crushed by rubble. The painting serves as a monument to the people of Missolonghi and to the idea of freedom against tyrannical rule. This event interested Delacroix not only for his sympathies with the Greeks, but also because the poet Byron, whom Delacroix greatly admired, had died there.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: A trip to England in 1825 included visits to Thomas Lawrence and Richard Parkes Bonington, and the colour and handling of English painting provided impetus for his only full-length portrait, the elegant "Portrait of Louis-Auguste Schwiter" (1826–30). At roughly the same time, Delacroix was creating romantic works of numerous themes, many of which would continue to interest him for over thirty years. By 1825, he was producing lithographs illustrating Shakespeare, and soon thereafter lithographs and paintings from Goethe's Faust. Paintings such as "The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan" (1826), and "Woman with Parrot" (1827), introduced subjects of violence and sensuality which would prove to be recurrent.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: These various romantic strands came together in "The Death of Sardanapalus" (1827–28). Delacroix's painting of the death of the Assyrian king Sardanapalus shows an emotionally stirring scene alive with beautiful colours, exotic costumes and tragic events. The "Death of Sardanapalus" depicts the besieged king watching impassively as guards carry out his orders to kill his servants, concubines and animals. The literary source is a play by Byron, although the play does not specifically mention any massacre of concubines.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Sardanapalus' attitude of calm detachment is a familiar pose in Romantic imagery in this period in Europe. The painting, which was not exhibited again for many years afterward, has been regarded by some critics as a gruesome fantasy involving death and lust. Especially shocking is the struggle of a nude woman whose throat is about to be cut, a scene placed prominently in the foreground for maximum impact. However, the sensuous beauty and exotic colours of the composition make the picture appear pleasing and shocking at the same time.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: A variety of Romantic interests were again synthesized in "The Murder of the Bishop of Liège" (1829). It also borrowed from a literary source, this time Scott, and depicts a scene from the Middle Ages, that of the murder of Louis de Bourbon, Bishop of Liège amidst an orgy sponsored by his captor, William de la Marck. Set in an immense vaulted interior which Delacroix based on sketches of the Palais de Justice in Rouen and Westminster Hall, the drama plays out in chiaroscuro, organized around a brilliantly lit stretch of tablecloth. In 1855, a critic described the painting's vibrant handling as "Less finished than a painting, more finished than a sketch, "The Murder of the Bishop of Liège" was left by the painter at that supreme moment when one more stroke of the brush would have ruined everything".


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Delacroix's most influential work came in 1830 with the painting "Liberty Leading the People", which for choice of subject and technique highlights the differences between the romantic approach and the neoclassical style. Less obviously, it also differs from the Romanticism of Géricault, as exemplified by "The Raft of the Medusa".


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Delacroix felt his composition more vividly as a whole, thought of his figures and crowds as types, and dominated them by the symbolic figure of Republican Liberty which is one of his finest plastic inventions...


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Probably Delacroix's best-known painting, "Liberty Leading the People" is an unforgettable image of Parisians, having taken up arms, marching forward under the banner of the tricolour representing liberty, equality, and fraternity. Although Delacroix was inspired by contemporary events to invoke this romantic image of the spirit of liberty, he seems to be trying to convey the will and character of the people, rather than glorifying the actual event, the 1830 revolution against Charles X, which did little other than bring a different king, Louis-Philippe, to power. The warriors lying dead in the foreground offer poignant counterpoint to the symbolic female figure, who is illuminated triumphantly against a background of smoke.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Although the French government bought the painting, by 1832 officials deemed its glorification of liberty too inflammatory and removed it from public view. Nonetheless, Delacroix still received many government commissions for murals and ceiling paintings.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Following the Revolution of 1848 that saw the end of the reign of King Louis Philippe, Delacroix' painting, "Liberty Leading the People", was finally put on display by the newly elected President, Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III). It is exhibited in the Louvre museum in Paris; although from December 2012 until 2014 it was on exhibit at Louvre-Lens in Lens, Pas-de-Calais.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: The boy holding a pistol aloft on the right is sometimes thought to be an inspiration for the Gavroche character in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel, "Les Misérables".


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: In 1832, Delacroix traveled to Spain and North Africa in company with the diplomat Charles-Edgar de Mornay, as part of a diplomatic mission to Morocco shortly after the French conquered Algeria. He went not primarily to study art, but to escape from the civilization of Paris, in hopes of seeing a more "primitive" culture. He eventually produced over 100 paintings and drawings of scenes from or based on the life of the people of North Africa, and added a new and personal chapter to the interest in Orientalism. Delacroix was entranced by the people and their clothes, and the trip would inform the subject matter of a great many of his future paintings. He believed that the North Africans, in their attire and their attitudes, provided a visual equivalent to the people of Classical Rome and Greece:


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: The Greeks and Romans are here at my door, in the Arabs who wrap themselves in a white blanket and look like Cato or Brutus...


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: He managed to sketch some women secretly in Algiers, as in the painting "Women of Algiers in their Apartment" (1834), but generally he encountered difficulty in finding Muslim women to pose for him because of Muslim rules requiring that women be covered. Less problematic was the painting of Jewish women in North Africa, as subjects for the "Jewish Wedding in Morocco" (1837–1841).


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: While in Tangier, Delacroix made many sketches of the people and the city, subjects to which he would return until the end of his life. Animals—the embodiment of romantic passion—were incorporated into paintings such as "Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable" (1860), "The Lion Hunt" (of which there exist many versions, painted between 1856 and 1861), and "Arab Saddling his Horse" (1855).


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Delacroix drew inspiration from many sources over his career, such as the literary works of William Shakespeare and Lord Byron, and the artistry of Michelangelo. But, throughout his life, he felt a constant need for music, saying in 1855 that "nothing can be compared with the emotion caused by music; that it expresses incomparable shades of feeling." He also said, while working at Saint-Sulpice, that music put him in a state of "exaltation" that inspired his painting. It was often from music, whether the most melancholy renditions of Chopin or the "pastoral" works of Beethoven, that Delacroix was able to draw the most emotion and inspiration. At one point during his life, Delacroix befriended and made portraits of the composer Chopin; in his journal, Delacroix praised him frequently.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: In 1838 Delacroix exhibited "Medea about to Kill Her Children", which created a sensation at the Salon. His first large-scale treatment of a scene from Greek mythology, the painting depicts Medea clutching her children, dagger drawn to slay them in vengeance for her abandonment by Jason. The three nude figures form an animated pyramid, bathed in a raking light that penetrates the grotto in which Medea has hidden. Though the painting was quickly purchased by the State, Delacroix was disappointed when it was sent to the Lille Musée des Beaux-Arts; he had intended for it to hang at the Luxembourg, where it would have joined "The Barque of Dante" and "Scenes from the Massacres of Chios".


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: From 1833 on Delacroix received numerous commissions to decorate public buildings in Paris. In that year he began work for the Salon du Roi in the Chambre des Députés, Palais Bourbon, which was not completed until 1837, and began a lifelong friendship with the female artist Marie-Élisabeth Blavot-Boulanger. For the next ten years he painted in both the Library at the Palais Bourbon and the Library at the Palais du Luxembourg. In 1843 he decorated the Church of St. Denis du Saint Sacrement with a large "Pietà", and from 1848 to 1850 he painted the ceiling in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre. From 1857 to 1861 he worked on frescoes for the Chapelle des Anges at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. They included "Jacob Wrestling with the Angel", "Saint Michael Slaying the Dragon", and "The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple". These commissions offered him the opportunity to compose on a large scale in an architectural setting, much as had those masters he admired, Paolo Veronese, Tintoretto, and Rubens.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: The work was fatiguing, and during these years he suffered from an increasingly fragile constitution. In addition to his home in Paris, from 1844 he also lived at a small cottage in Champrosay, where he found respite in the countryside. From 1834 until his death, he was faithfully cared for by his housekeeper, Jeanne-Marie le Guillou, who zealously guarded his privacy, and whose devotion prolonged his life and his ability to continue working in his later years.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: In 1862 Delacroix participated in the creation of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. His friend, the writer Théophile Gautier, became chairman, with the painter Aimé Millet acting as deputy chairman. In addition to Delacroix, the committee was composed of the painters Carrier-Belleuse and Puvis de Chavannes. Among the exhibitors were Léon Bonnat, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Charles-François Daubigny, Gustave Doré, and Édouard Manet. Just after his death in 1863, the society organized a retrospective exhibition of 248 paintings and lithographs by Delacroix—and ceased to mount any further exhibitions.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: The winter of 1862–63 was extremely rough for Delacroix; he was suffering from a bad throat infection that seemed to get worse over the course of the season. On a trip to Champrosay, he met a friend on the train and became exhausted after having a conversation. On 1 June he returned to Paris to see his doctor. Two weeks later, on 16 June, he was getting better and returned to his house in the country. But by 15 July he was sick enough to again see his doctor, who said he could do nothing more for him. By then, the only food he could eat was fruit. Delacroix realized the seriousness of his condition and wrote his will, leaving a gift for each of his friends. For his trusted housekeeper, Jenny Le Guillou, he left enough money for her to live on while ordering everything in his studio to be sold. He also inserted a clause forbidding any representation of his features, "whether by a death-mask or by drawing or by photography. I forbid it, expressly." On 13 August, Delacroix died, with Jenny by his side. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: His house, formerly situated along the canal of the Marne, is now near the exit of the motorway leading from Paris to central Germany.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: At the sale of his work in 1864, 9140 works were attributed to Delacroix, including 853 paintings, 1525 pastels and water colours, 6629 drawings, 109 lithographs, and over 60 sketch books. The number and quality of the drawings, whether done for constructive purposes or to capture a spontaneous movement, underscored his explanation, "Colour always occupies me, but drawing preoccupies me."


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Delacroix produced several fine self-portraits, and a number of memorable portraits which seem to have been done purely for pleasure, among which were the portrait of fellow artist Baron Schwiter, an inspired small oil of the violinist Niccolò Paganini, and Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand, a double portrait of his friends, the composer Frédéric Chopin and writer George Sand; the painting was cut after his death, but the individual portraits survive.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: On occasion Delacroix painted pure landscapes ("The Sea at Dieppe", 1852) and still lifes ("Still Life with Lobsters", 1826–27), both of which feature the virtuoso execution of his figure-based works. He is also well known for his "Journal", in which he gave eloquent expression to his thoughts on art and contemporary life.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: A generation of impressionists was inspired by Delacroix's work. Renoir and Manet made copies of his paintings, and Degas purchased the portrait of Baron Schwiter for his private collection. His painting at the church of Saint-Sulpice has been called the "finest mural painting of his time".


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: Contemporary Chinese artist Yue Minjun has created his own interpretation of Delacroix's painting "Massacre of Chios", which retains the same name. Yue Minjun's painting was itself sold at Sotheby's for nearly $4.1 million in 2007.


title: Eugène Delacroix

text: His pencil drawing "Moorish Conversation on a Terrace" was discovered as part of the Munich Art Hoard.


title: Valence electron

text: In chemistry and physics, a valence electron is an electron in the outer shell associated with an atom, and that can participate in the formation of a chemical bond if the outer shell is not closed. In a single covalent bond, both atoms in the bond contribute one valence electron in order to form a shared pair.


title: Valence electron

text: The presence of valence electrons can determine the element's chemical properties, such as its valence—whether it may bond with other elements and, if so, how readily and with how many. In this way, a given element's reactivity is highly dependent upon its electronic configuration. For a main-group element, a valence electron can exist only in the outermost electron shell; for a transition metal, a valence electron can also be in an inner shell.


title: Valence electron

text: An atom with a closed shell of valence electrons (corresponding to a noble gas configuration) tends to be chemically inert. Atoms with one or two valence electrons more than a closed shell are highly reactive due to the relatively low energy to remove the extra valence electrons to form a positive ion. An atom with one or two electrons fewer than a closed shell is reactive due to its tendency either to gain the missing valence electrons and form a negative ion, or else to share valence electrons and form a covalent bond.


title: Valence electron

text: Similar to a core electron, a valence electron has the ability to absorb or release energy in the form of a photon. An energy gain can trigger the electron to move (jump) to an outer shell; this is known as atomic excitation. Or the electron can even break free from its associated atom's shell; this is ionization to form a positive ion. When an electron loses energy (thereby causing a photon to be emitted), then it can move to an inner shell which is not fully occupied.


title: Valence electron

text: The electrons that determine valence – how an atom reacts chemically – are those with the highest energy.


title: Valence electron

text: For a main-group element, the valence electrons are defined as those electrons residing in the electronic shell of highest principal quantum number "n". Thus, the number of valence electrons that it may have depends on the electron configuration in a simple way. For example, the electronic configuration of phosphorus (P) is 1s 2s 2p 3s 3p so that there are 5 valence electrons (3s 3p), corresponding to a maximum valence for P of 5 as in the molecule PF; this configuration is normally abbreviated to [Ne] 3s 3p, where [Ne] signifies the core electrons whose configuration is identical to that of the noble gas neon.


title: Valence electron

text: However, transition elements have ("n"−1)d energy levels that are very close in energy to the "n" level. So as opposed to main-group elements, a valence electron for a transition metal is defined as an electron that resides outside a noble-gas core. Thus, generally, the d electrons in transition metals behave as valence electrons although they are not in the outermost shell. For example, manganese (Mn) has configuration 1s 2s 2p 3s 3p 4s 3d; this is abbreviated to [Ar] 4s 3d, where [Ar] denotes a core configuration identical to that of the noble gas argon. In this atom, a 3d electron has energy similar to that of a 4s electron, and much higher than that of a 3s or 3p electron. In effect, there are possibly seven valence electrons (4s 3d) outside the argon-like core; this is consistent with the chemical fact that manganese can have an oxidation state as high as +7 (in the permanganate ion: ).


title: Valence electron

text: The farther right in each transition metal series, the lower the energy of an electron in a d subshell and the less such an electron has valence properties. Thus, although a nickel atom has, in principle, ten valence electrons (4s 3d), its oxidation state never exceeds four. For zinc, the 3d subshell is complete in all known compounds, although it does contribute to the valence band in some compounds. Similar patterns hold for the ("n"−2)f energy levels of inner transition metals.


title: Valence electron

text: The number of valence electrons of an element can be determined by the periodic table group (vertical column) in which the element is categorized. In groups 1–12, the group number matches the number of valence electrons; in groups 13–18, the units digit of the group number matches the number of valence electrons.


title: Valence electron

text: Helium is an exception: despite having a 1s configuration with two valence electrons, and thus having some similarities with the alkaline earth metals with their "n"s valence configurations, its shell is completely full and hence it is chemically very inert and is usually placed in group 18 with the other noble gases.


title: Valence electron

text: The valence shell is the set of orbitals which are energetically accessible for accepting electrons to form chemical bonds.


title: Valence electron

text: For main-group elements, the valence shell consists of the "n"s and "n"p orbitals in the outermost electron shell. For transition metals the orbitals of the incomplete ("n"−1)d subshell are included, and for lanthanides and actinides incomplete ("n"−2)f and ("n"−1)d subshells. The orbitals involved can be in an inner electron shell and do not all correspond to the same electron shell or principal quantum number n in a given element, but they are all at similar energies.


title: Valence electron

text: As a general rule, a main-group element (except hydrogen or helium) tends to react to form a sp electron configuration. This tendency is called the octet rule, because each bonded atom has 8 valence electrons including shared electrons. Similarly, a transition metal tends to react to form a dsp electron configuration. This tendency is called the 18-electron rule, because each bonded atom has 18 valence electrons including shared electrons.


title: Valence electron

text: The heavy group 2 elements calcium, strontium, and barium can use the ("n"−1)d-shell as well, giving them some similarities to transition metals.


title: Valence electron

text: The number of valence electrons in an atom governs its bonding behavior. Therefore, elements whose atoms have the same number of valence electrons are often grouped together in the periodic table of the elements, especially if they also have the same types of valence orbitals.


title: Valence electron

text: The most reactive kind of metallic element is an alkali metal of group 1 (e.g., sodium or potassium); this is because such an atom has only a single valence electron. During the formation of an ionic bond, which provides the necessary ionization energy, this one valence electron is easily lost to form a positive ion (cation) with a closed shell (e.g., Na or K). An alkaline earth metal of group 2 (e.g., magnesium) is somewhat less reactive, because each atom must lose two valence electrons to form a positive ion with a closed shell (e.g., Mg).


title: Valence electron

text: Within each group (each periodic table column) of metals, reactivity increases with each lower row of the table (from a light element to a heavier element), because a heavier element has more electron shells than a lighter element; a heavier element's valence electrons exist at higher principal quantum numbers (they are farther away from the nucleus of the atom, and are thus at higher potential energies, which means they are less tightly bound).


title: Valence electron

text: A nonmetal atom tends to attract additional valence electrons to attain a full valence shell; this can be achieved in one of two ways: An atom can either share electrons with a neighboring atom (a covalent bond), or it can remove electrons from another atom (an ionic bond). The most reactive kind of nonmetal element is a halogen (e.g., fluorine (F) or chlorine (Cl)). Such an atom has the following electron configuration: sp; this requires only one additional valence electron to form a closed shell. To form an ionic bond, a halogen atom can remove an electron from another atom in order to form an anion (e.g., F, Cl, etc.). To form a covalent bond, one electron from the halogen and one electron from another atom form a shared pair (e.g., in the molecule H–F, the line represents a shared pair of valence electrons, one from H and one from F).


title: Valence electron

text: Within each group of nonmetals, reactivity decreases with each lower row of the table (from a light element to a heavy element) in the periodic table, because the valence electrons are at progressively higher energies and thus progressively less tightly bound. In fact, oxygen (the lightest element in group 16) is the most reactive nonmetal after fluorine, even though it is not a halogen, because the valence shell of a halogen is at a higher principal quantum number.


title: Valence electron

text: In these simple cases where the octet rule is obeyed, the valence of an atom equals the number of electrons gained, lost, or shared in order to form the stable octet. However, there are also many molecules that are exceptions, and for which the valence is less clearly defined.


title: Valence electron

text: Valence electrons are also responsible for the electrical conductivity of an element; as a result, an element may be classified as a metal, a nonmetal, or a metalloid (many of which are semiconductors).


title: Valence electron

text: Metallic elements generally have high electrical conductivity when in the solid state. In each row of the periodic table, the metals occur to the left of the nonmetals, and thus a metal has fewer possible valence electrons than a nonmetal. However, a valence electron of a metal atom has a small ionization energy, and in the solid-state this valence electron is relatively free to leave one atom in order to associate with another nearby. Such a "free" electron can be moved under the influence of an electric field, and its motion constitutes an electric current; it is responsible for the electrical conductivity of the metal. Copper, aluminium, silver, and gold are examples of good conductors.


title: Valence electron

text: A nonmetallic element has low electrical conductivity; it acts as an insulator. Such an element is found toward the right of the periodic table, and it has a valence shell that is at least half full (the exception is boron). Its ionization energy is large; an electron cannot leave an atom easily when an electric field is applied, and thus such an element can conduct only very small electric currents. Examples of solid elemental insulators are diamond (an allotrope of carbon) and sulfur.


title: Valence electron

text: A solid compound containing metals can also be an insulator if the valence electrons of the metal atoms are used to form ionic bonds. For example, although elemental sodium is a metal, solid sodium chloride is an insulator, because the valence electron of sodium is transferred to chlorine to form an ionic bond, and thus that electron cannot be moved easily.


title: Valence electron

text: A semiconductor has an electrical conductivity that is intermediate between that of a metal and that of a nonmetal; a semiconductor also differs from a metal in that a semiconductor's conductivity increases with temperature. The typical elemental semiconductors are silicon and germanium, each atom of which has four valence electrons. The properties of semiconductors are best explained using band theory, as a consequence of a small energy gap between a valence band (which contains the valence electrons at absolute zero) and a conduction band (to which valence electrons are excited by thermal energy).


title: Hera Hilmar

text: Hera Hilmarsdóttir (born 27 December 1988), known professionally as Hera Hilmar, is an Icelandic actress. She has been active in the film industry since 1995.


title: Hera Hilmar

text: Hera is the daughter of the film director Hilmar Oddsson and the actress Thorey Sigthorsdottir (Þórey Sigþórsdóttir). Her grandfather was the playwright and theater director Oddur Björnsson.


title: Hera Hilmar

text: Hera was nominated for an Edda as Actress of the Year in a leading role in 2007 for her role in "The Quiet Storm". She joined "Da Vinci's Demons" in 2013 as Vanessa Moschella, outspoken Florentine barmaid and occasional model for Leonardo.


title: Hera Hilmar

text: Later she won the same award (Edda) twice, first in 2015 for her role as Eik in "Life in a Fishbowl", and then in 2017 for her role as Anna in "The Oath". She was also chosen as one of Europe's Shooting Stars at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015, as well as winning a ‘special mention’ at the Zurich Film Festival for her role in "Life in a Fishbowl".


title: Hera Hilmar

text: In 2015, Hera explored Turkey to prepare for production of the period drama film "The Ottoman Lieutenant", in which she played Lillie Rowe, a 20-year-old nurse from a prominent Philadelphia family. While there, she remarked the landscape around the filming location is breathtaking. Around the same time, Hera played Tanja, a Serbian agent disguised as a housemaid alongside Ben Kingsley in Brad Silberling's film, "An Ordinary Man", which was later screened in 2017 before being released direct-to-video in June 2018.


title: Hera Hilmar

text: In February 2017, less than two months after her 28th birthday, Hera was doing a play in Iceland when she heard about Peter Jackson’s film, "Mortal Engines", based on the novel of the same name by Philip Reeve. Writer Philippa Boyens described her audition via Skype was "flawless", and she was cast thereafter. Her character, Hester Shaw, is different than in the novel, as she is aged up a bit, and is made a protagonist. Upon release, she recounted reading the source material and going through the action that the complexly crafted world she tried to understand during filming, which took place between April and July 2017.


title: Hera Hilmar

text: In June 2018, Hera was cast in Matt Weiner's anthology series "The Romanoffs". On October 18, 2018, it was reported that she joined the Apple TV+ series "See", alongside Christian Camargo. She plays Maghra, the wife of Baba Voss, a character played by Jason Momoa. The series has two seasons out already and the third is currently premiering in the fall of 2022 on AppleTv+.


title: Hera Hilmar

text: During the pandemic, Hera both spent her time filming season 2 and 3 of SEE for AppleTv+, as well as collaborating with The Icelandic Film Centre for the 2020 short films "Last Dance" and "Óskin", or “The Wish”. She also starred as the leading role “Helga” in Asa Helga Hjorleifsdottir’s feature film adaptation of "Svar við bréfi Helgu", or “A Reply to a Letter from Helga”. In addition, she provided a narration for the video revealing the new national Icelandic football team crest.