Eesti röövlinnud : kullilised ja kakulised

What role birds of prey—diurnal raptors and owls—play in nature, how we should regard them, which species of raptors and owls can be encountered in the Estonian SSR, how numerous they are, and where and how they live—these are the subjects of the present work.

The book consists of two main parts. The general section examines the relationship between humans and birds of prey throughout history and discusses the biology of these birds. The special section focuses on Estonia's birds of prey—hawks and owls—in systematic order, describing their appearance, distribution, abundance, nesting, prey, and migration.

Of the world's 8,600 species of birds, only 405 species belong to the diurnal raptors and owls. Likewise, among Estonia's avifauna of more than 300 species, the 28 species of diurnal raptors (including subspecies) and the 13 species of owls do not constitute a large proportion numerically. Nevertheless, hawks and owls are important components of living nature because, as carnivorous birds, they prey upon other species. This fact is made especially conspicuous by the circumstance that their prey is, in most cases, comparatively large animals.