- Asio flammeus
Description
A medium sized owl with long wings, its flight is quite harrier like. It quarters the ground with its wings held up at an angle and then suddenly stalls and lands on its prey, which is often small mammals. The irides are bright yellow, and the face is rather plain apart from dark circles around the eyes. It can be confused with long-eared owl which is normally but not always nocturnal.
Identification
The short-eared owl is often to be seen actively hunting in daylight over open country such as moorland and savanna.L 33�40 cm, WS 95�105 cm. Breeds on heathland, in scrub among meadows, on bogs, esp. in upper tree zone in open boreal forests. In Britain local in N, sporadic in S. Mainly migratory in N Europe, sedentary in rest. Partly diurnal. Food mainly voles. Nest a scrape on ground.
Photographed: Ranch land north of Great Falls, MT.
Hawaiian subspecies
The Hawaiian subspecies is called "pueo" in Hawaiian. The pueo normally hunts in daylight, and the best places to see them are the mid-elevation slopes of Mauna Kea where ranching has degraded the native forest to grassy pasture. The Mauna Kea Access Road is the easiest of these to reach by car, and the owls are often flying low over the pastures in the morning hours. Look for them from the junction with Saddle Road up to about 8000 feet elevation, where you can see the pasture grass start to thin out and bare ground begins to show through.
Originally posted by bkrownd
Bird Song
<flashmp3>Asio flammeus (song).mp3</flashmp3>
Listen in an external program
