Short-eared Owl
Asio flammeus
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An owl that hunts in daylight, quartering low over the marsh on long, stiff wings.
A medium-large owl of open country, sandy-brown and heavily streaked, with piercing yellow eyes set in black patches and very short ear tufts that are usually invisible. Short-eared owls hunt the Solway merse, rough grazing and moorland edge, and are one of the few owls regularly seen in broad daylight. Numbers wintering here vary a great deal from year to year.
Behaviour
They hunt by quartering slowly into the wind a few metres above the ground on long, stiff, rather moth-like wings, dropping abruptly onto voles. Because their numbers track the vole cycle, a good vole year can bring several owls to one marsh and a poor one almost none. They nest and roost on the ground, and in winter several may share a favoured roost site in rough grass.
Migration
Some short-eared owls breed on Scottish moorland, but the birds wintering on the Solway are mostly incomers from Scandinavia and northern Europe, arriving in October and moving on in March.
When to see it
Quick facts
- Family
- Owls (Strigidae)
- Size
- 34–43 cm · wingspan up to 1.1 m
- UK status
- Amber-listed
Photo by Sumeet Moghe, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons