Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Eurasian eagle-owl is among the largest owl species in the world. Females can weigh up to 4.6 kg and reach 75 cm in length, with a wingspan of up to 188 cm. It is larger than the snowy owl and great horned owl, though Blakiston's fish owl averages slightly heavier and the great grey owl averages slightly longer.
The Eurasian eagle-owl inhabits a range of roughly 51.4 million square kilometres across Europe and Asia. It is found from the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Russian Far East, and from the Arctic tree line in the north to the Himalayas, where it has been recorded at elevations up to 4,700 metres. It prefers rocky terrain, cliff ledges, and areas near woodland edges or wetlands, but has also nested in Helsinki and other European cities.
The Eurasian eagle-owl is primarily a nocturnal predator of small mammals, particularly rodents and rabbits. It also takes birds and larger mammals. Secondary prey includes reptiles, amphibians, fish, large insects, and invertebrates.
The global population of the Eurasian eagle-owl is estimated at between 100,000 and 500,000 individuals. The IUCN lists its conservation status as least concern, though the population trend is recorded as decreasing. The largest concentrations are found in continental Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, and Central Asia.
In June 2007, an eagle-owl landed on the pitch of the Helsinki Olympic Stadium during a European Football Championship qualification match between Finland and Belgium. The match was interrupted for six minutes. Finland won the game, and the Finnish national team has been nicknamed Huuhkajat, the Finnish word for Eurasian eagle-owls, ever since. The bird was later named Helsinki Citizen of the Year in December 2007.
Approximately 12 to 13 subspecies of the Eurasian eagle-owl are recognised today. They vary considerably in size, plumage colour, and geographic range, from the pale western Siberian B. b. sibiricus to the smallest known subspecies, B. b. nikolskii, found in parts of Afghanistan and Iran. The nominate subspecies, B. b. bubo, inhabits continental Europe from near the Arctic Circle to Spain and Greece.