Feathered Fridays - Long-eared Owl

Becky Matsubara from El Sobrante, California, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Asio otus

Unlike the feature of this fortnight’s Feathered Friday, I am not nocturnal, and as such found myself too tired to work last night so I present to you, in the daylight hours of Saturday, the Long-eared Owl.

Aside from the Barn Owl, and the much larger Eagle Owl – with which this bird shares many features – I think the Long-eared Owl is one of Britain’s most striking birds of the Strigiformes order. Its plumage is a mixture of buff or rusty feathers, streaked with dark brown, its bright orange eyes peer out from beneath a quirky white brow, and then there’s those two gorgeous, rusty-black ear-tufts (not real ears, of course) which it raises when alarmed. And all of this is packaged into a bird not much bigger than a common pigeon. It can be confused with the Short-eared Owl though, on the rare occasion it is seen hunting during the day, because those ear-tufts will be tucked back in flight.

They have sparsely populated most of the UK, with the exclusion of the South West and parts of Wales, but are reportedly thriving in great numbers in Ireland. Those birds which inhabit the North will migrate south for the Winter, joining those moving north from the Continent and those that are resident all year round, meaning owls are sometimes seen on the south coast towards the end of the year. As Winter draws to a close in February (so pretty much this exact time of year), it marks the beginning of their breeding season, a time when they become much more elusive, seeking out old crow or squirrel nests and tree hollows in coniferous forests to rear their young. This can be between 3 and 5 chicks which, from egg to fledgling, occupy the nest for almost 2 months and are dependant on their parents for food for another 2 months after that.

The best time to see these owls is on a winter’s night, either by the coast while on migration, or near coniferous forests and areas of marshy thicket when you might catch them returning to their roost after a hunt. Listen out for their short and sombre hoo, sometimes pitched high or low.

Facts taken from: the RSPB, Woodland Trust, British-birdsongs.uk, and the RSPB’s ‘Birds of Britain and Europe’ Guidebook by Rob Hume.

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/bird-a-z/long-eared-owl/

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/animals/birds/long-eared-owl/

https://www.british-birdsongs.uk/long-eared-owl/?type1536

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0241302242/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1