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Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus)

Very much an open country bird, the Short-eared Owl has longer, narrower wings than most other owls. This gives it the ability to fly close to the ground at low speed with a minimum of flapping, allowing it to make reduced noise while flying and enabling it to detect prey by ear more efficiently. It can also make supremely quick in-flight adjustments while hunting, facilitating sharp turns and quick dives to the ground to catch its small mammal prey by surprise.
Short-eared Owl

Short-eared Owl, Speyside, Scotland (Dave Kjaer)


This is a bird of tundra, moorland, grassland and marshes, places where there are few if any trees. In these barren habitats the Short-eared Owl is unusual in laying its eggs on the ground, usually in a shallow scrape excavated by the female. The site chosen is usually on a slightly raised, dry patch with copious low vegetation, but occasionally the birds must make do with wetter sites where they will do something almost unique among owls, which is build a nest.
Short-eared Owl

Short-eared Owl, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire (Dave Kjaer)

Another unusual piece of behaviour necessitated by the Short-eared Owl’s attachment to open areas is its tendency to roost on the ground. In winter, when Short-eared Owls are drawn to food-rich sites in numbers, these roosts are community affairs, with a membership that regularly reaches 20 and may touch 100. Owls are rarely sociable so, once again, the Short-eared Owl defies owl norms. These roosts may be occupied at varying times, because the Short-eared Owl hunts regularly at any hour of day or night.

In the breeding season male Short-eared Owls perform an impressive display-flight, rising high into the air and clapping their wings together to make an audible sound. If approached by a rival instead of a potential mate they switch to the “Underwing Display”, lifting their wings high to show off their pale coloration.