Short-eared Owl

Asio flammeus

Order STRIGIFORMES - Family STRIGIDAE

Menu

1. Cool Facts
2. Description
3. Similar Species
4. Sound
5. Range
6. Habitat
7. Food
8. Behavior
9. Reproduction
10. Conservation Status
11. Other Names

A bird of open grasslands, the Short-eared Owl is one of the most widely distributed owls in the world. It is found across North America, South America, and Eurasia, and on many oceanic islands.

Cool Facts

• The Short-eared Owl may compete with the Barn Owl in some areas. Some successful nest box programs to attract Barn Owls have coincided with the decline of the Short-eared Owl in the same area.
• The Short-eared Owl is one of the few species that seems to have benefited from strip-mining. It nests on reclaimed and replanted mines south of its normal breeding range.

Description

• Size: 34-43 cm (13-17 in)
• Wingspan: 85-103 cm (33-41 in)
• Weight: 206-475 g (7.27-16.77 ounces)

• Medium-sized owl.
• Mostly mottled brown.
• Chest pale with thin streaks.
• Head large and round.
• Large buff wing patch on outer wing visible in flight.
• Flies close to ground with characteristic floppy flight.

• Tiny "ear" tufts difficult to see.
• Dark around eyes.
• Eyes yellow.
• Feet feathered.

Sex Differences

Sexes similar in plumage. Female slightly larger with darker back and more rust on chest.

Immature

Similar to adult.

Similar Species

• Long-eared Owl is darker, with prominent ear tufts, and barring on the belly, but is very similar in flight.

Sound

Call a scratchy barking.

»listen to songs of this species

Range

Summer Range

Breeds across Alaska and Canada, southward to northern California, Kansas, northern Ohio, and northern Maine. Also across northern Eurasia, South America, and on oceanic islands around the world.

Winter Range

Winters from southern Canada to Mexico and the southern United States. Resident farther southward. Also southern Eurasia and northern Africa.

Habitat

Open country, including prairie, meadows, tundra, moorlands, marshes, savanna and open woodland; in the Hawaiian Islands also around towns; nesting on the ground.

Food

Small mammals; sometimes birds.

Behavior

Foraging

Hunts day and night; mainly at dawn and dusk in winter. Flies low over open ground, locating prey by ear. Kills prey with a bite to the back of the skull; often swallows prey whole.

Reproduction

Nest Type

Scrape in ground lined with grasses.

Egg Description

Creamy white.

Clutch Size

1-11 eggs.

Condition at Hatching

Helpless, eyes closed, covered in down.

Conservation Status

Declining in southern portion of range. Listed as of special concern, threatened, or endangered in some states. Common in northern portion of breeding range, but populations fluctuate greatly along with prey population cycles.

Other Names

Hibou des Marias (French)
Lechuza de la penas (Spanish)

Sources used to construct this page:

Holt, D. W. and S. M. Leasure. 1993. Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus). In The Birds of North America, No. 62 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists? Union.