Scops owls' datasets to study the fitness consequences of assortment based on coloration and body size

[Description of methods used for collection/generation of data] Every year, we visited nest boxes where scops owls breed once a week until egg-laying was detected. Then, just before the estimated hatching date we visited them to capture and ring the incubating female by hand. After hatching, nests were monitored weekly to record brood size and the number of fledglings and to make owlet measurements. Males were captured with nest-traps at night during the chick-rearing period while delivering food to the nests. At capture, we took individual measurements and ringed birds. In addition, in the first third of the nesting period, parental feeding behavior was filmed at nests after dawn with infrared cameras located inside nest boxes. From these recordings we calculated parental feeding rate and determined the total richness of prey delivered to the owlets.