Short-eared Owl
Asio flammeus (Pontoppidan, 1763)
SE
SHEOW
7680
Family: Strigiformes > Strigidae
The Short-eared Owl is associated with upland grassland and young forestry during the breeding season, and with a broader range of grassland habitats in winter.
The Short-eared Owl is a scarce breeding species in Britain & Ireland, and rather nomadic in its habits, breeding in one location one year and moving to a new location entirely the next. Some individuals may even make multiple breeding attempts in widely different locations during the same breeding season.
Short-eared Owls mainly feed on small mammals, with Field Vole of particular importance, and both their breeding distribution and success have been linked to prey availability.
Identification
Short-eared Owl identification is often straightforward. The following article may help when identifying Short-eared Owl.
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Browse training coursesStatus and Trends
Population size and trends and patterns of distribution based on BTO surveys and atlases with data collected by BTO volunteers.
CONSERVATION STATUS
This species can be found on the following statutory and conservation listings and schedules.
POPULATION CHANGE
The breeding distribution of Short-eared Owl has almost halved since the 1968–72 Breeding Atlas (Balmer et al. 2013), and the species was added to the Rare Breeding Birds Panel list in 2010. The most recent population estimate was 620 to 2,200 pairs (APEP4). The species is a nomadic breeder and recent tracking work by the BTO has shown that one bird made breeding attempts in both Scotland and Norway in the same year; this suggests that individuals birds may have a flexible breeding strategy and breeding numbers in the UK may fluctuate in response to numbers of small mammals.
DISTRIBUTION
The Short-eared Owl’s core breeding range is the open rough country of northern England and Scotland, where they favour heather moorland, rough grassland, bogs and young forestry plantations. Elsewhere breeding records are widely scattered and involve a small number of pairs, in lowland coastal marshes and extensive grasslands. Abundance is greatest on Orkney, on the Uists and in the Pennines. An influx of Fennoscandian breeders boosts wintering numbers, which are widely distributed along the British east coast from Fife to Kent, in large river valleys in southern and eastern England, the lowlands of Lancashire and the downlands of Hampshire and Wiltshire. Irish records are usually along the east coast.
Occupied 10-km squares in UK
No. occupied in breeding season | 421 |
% occupied in breeding season | 14 |
No. occupied in winter | 879 |
% occupied in winter | 29 |
European Distribution Map
DISTRIBUTION CHANGE
Since the 1968–72 Breeding Atlas, the breeding range has almost halved and the species is now Amber-listed in the UK and numbers are monitored by the Rare Breeding Birds Panel.
Change in occupied 10-km squares in the UK
% change in range in breeding season (1968–72 to 2008–11) | -47.6% |
% change in range in winter (1981–84 to 2007–11) | --19.3% |
SEASONALITY
Short-eared Owls are present throughout the year but more often recorded in autumn and winter months when significant arrivals from the continent may swell resident numbers.
Movement
Information about movement and migration based on online bird portals (e.g. BirdTrack), Ringing schemes and tracking studies.
An overview of year-round movements for the whole of Europe can be seen on the EuroBirdPortal viewer.
RINGING RECOVERIES
View a summary of recoveries in the Online Ringing Report.
Foreign locations of birds ringed or recovered in Britain & Ireland
Biology
Lifecycle and body size information about Short-eared Owl, including statistics on nesting, eggs and lifespan based on BTO ringing and nest recording data.
SURVIVAL & LONGEVITY
View number ringed each year in the Online Ringing Report
Maximum Age from Ringing | 6 years 7 months 28 days (set in 1963) |
CODES & CLASSIFICATION
Ring size | G |
Field Codes | 2-letter: SE | 5-letter code: SHEOW | Euring: 7680 |
For information in another language (where available) click on a linked name
Research
Interpretation and scientific publications about Short-eared Owl from BTO scientists.
CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS
Causes of change
It has been suggested that losses in Scotland may be linked to the maturation of plantations with owl densities peaking in forests aged three to seven years and forests only being used for the first 12 years whilst numbers of voles are high (Shaw 1995).
PUBLICATIONS (3)
Remote tracking unveils intercontinental movements of nomadic Short-eared Owls Asio flammeus with implications for resource tracking by irruptive specialist predators
Astounding Short-eared Owl movements revealed
International research led by BTO has revealed that Short-eared Owls make astonishing nomadic migrations between nest sites as far apart as Scotland and Arctic Russia.
Sensitivities to land use change by breeding Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) in Britain
Populations of Short-eared Owls are declining across many parts of their range, including here in Britain, where their breeding range contracted between 1990 and 2010.
Use of dwarf shrubland–grassland mosaics by a nomadic predatory bird, the Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus
Identifying habitat needs for Short-eared Owls
A substantial proportion of Britain’s Short-eared Owl population breeds on managed moorland, where these avian predators specialise on small mammal prey.
Links to more studies from ConservationEvidence.com
- Passive relocation: a method to preserve burrowing owls on disturbed sites
- Use of introduced perches by raptors: experimental results and management implications
- Conservation action on the endemic owls at Lianhuashan Mountains: Final report of project 'OWL 2002'
Read more studies about Short-eared Owl on Conservation Evidence >
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