“Long-Eared Owl is All Ears”

Long-eared Owls are lanky owls that often seem to wear a surprised expression thanks to long ear tufts that typically point straight up like exclamation marks. (I called him the rabbit owl while drawing his surprised expression). These nocturnal hunters are secretive and well-camouflaged, roosting and perching in dense stands of trees. This is another owl with asymmetrical ear cavities, allowing for precise location and capture of prey. Similar to other owls, they forage over grasslands for small mammals. 

Like other owls, the Long-eared has a body adapted for silent flight and precision hunting. Flight feathers with fringed edges and downy surfaces mute the sound of the owl’s passage through the air. They eat mostly small mammals, including voles, many kinds of mice, kangaroo rats, shrews, pocket gophers, and young rats or rabbits. They hunt over open ground or below the canopy in sparsely forested areas.

Long-eared Owls typically use stick nests abandoned by other bird species—commonly Black-billed Magpies, American Crows, Common Ravens, and various hawks. Less often, they raise their young in cavities in trees or cliffs, in abandoned squirrel nests, or on the ground. Nesting Long-eared Owls sometimes form loose colonies, occupying nests as close as 50 feet apart. They may also share nesting areas with American Crows and Black-billed Magpies. Outside of the breeding season, the owls roost in groups of up to 100 birds. Older nestlings are called “branchers” because they leave the nest to reside in surrounding trees. They move around by jumping, hopping, and pulling themselves up with wings and bill. Long-eared owls usually form monogamous pairs. Bonding probably begins in winter before communal roosts disband. Courting males make complex calls and perform an aerial, zigzagging display over suitable nesting habitat, with glides and wingbeats interspersed with wing claps.

Populations are hard to estimate due to their secretive nature, but may be on the decline. Long-eared Owls need both grassland and wooded areas and are vulnerable to the loss of riparian woodlands and isolated tree groves, especially in the arid West.

Sources: Audubon Society and Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Original mixed media on raw stretched canvas with hard maple float frame.

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