Each winter, Ohio is invaded by mysterious aliens that sail south from Canada on silent wings. But these migratory birds — short-eared and long-eared owls — are no longer feared as the portenders of death that most owls were during centuries past. Rather, a glimpse of the owls is eagerly sought by today’s birders as a special seasonal treat, another check mark to add to their life list.
The pointed protuberances on the heads of these two owl species that give them their names are not really ears, but rather, just feather tufts.
“An owl’s real ear openings are hidden beneath feathers along the sides of its head,” says Jim McCormac, one of Ohio’s leading field naturalists. He is the author of Birds of Ohio, a co-author of the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas II, and a contributing editor for Bird Watcher’s Digest, a prestigious, national birding magazine that is published in Marietta, Ohio, by the Thompson family.
Short-eared owls
Sometime this winter, near dusk, if you see a large bird hunting over an open, grassy field, its flight pattern resembling that of a giant, flitting moth, you’ve probably just spotted a short-eared owl. The owl is searching for meadow voles, its preferred food, and knows where to hunt by employing a sense humans don’t possess.
“Wildlife research has shown that when meadow voles move through their runways in the grass, they leave ultraviolet trails, the UV likely being contained in their urine,” McCormac says. “The owls can detect these trails and in turn know that meadow voles are present. If they detect a large number of trails, the owls stay and hunt; if not, they move on.”
McCormac remembers one extremely large concentration of short-eared owls that occurred one winter about 20 years ago at The Wilds in southeastern Ohio. “One birder counted more than 50 short-eared owls from just one spot,” he says. “High populations of meadow voles can make for very high numbers of short-eared owls.”
The owls are considered partially diurnal because they are active not only at night but also just before dark and again just before sunrise. During the day, short-eared owls roost on or near the ground.
Long-eared owls
Long-eareds hunt the same habitat and eat much of the same prey as their short-eared brethren, but you won’t see one until long after dark — these birds are completely nocturnal. “They’re very similar in appearance to short-eared owls and are even in the same genus,” McCormac says. “Masters of camouflage, long-eared owls spend the day hiding in dense cover, roosted well off the ground.”
During the day, McCormac says to look for roosting long-eared owls in dense stands of conifers, grapevine tangles, pin oaks (because those particular trees hold their leaves all winter), and willow thickets. “Long-eareds often roost communally,” he adds, “so if you find one owl, there are likely others around, sometimes as many as 20 in one location.”
McCormac says that long-eared owls at rest will sometimes lower their ear tufts, making them look like a hound dog. “Once the birds become alert to possible danger, the ear tufts instantly go back up, which helps the owls camouflage themselves and ‘disappear’ against the background of a tree trunk. They also have a trick of compressing their feathers against their body, making them appear long and thin, much like a broken-off tree limb.”
But the survival tactics of long-eared owls don’t fool everyone. Considered the Rodney Dangerfields of the owl world — “I don’t get no respect” — long-eareds are often preyed upon by other owls and also hawks.
Chip Gross is Ohio Cooperative Living’s outdoors editor. He took these photos of owls on the properties of Tom and Nancy Rensch (members of Mid-Ohio Energy Cooperative), and Drs. Scott and Ann Harmon (DVMs). If you have a unique wildlife photo opportunity, send him an e-mail at whchipgross@gmail.com.
