Nature Trail
The ‘mean’ facial expression of the short-eared owl
I encountered a Short-eared Owl while on a coastal walk. It heard me coming before I saw it. Its mottled brown body stood on the ground, its large head slowly turning on its short neck for it to stare at me with large, piercing, yellow eyes set in a foil of jet black before it jumped into flight drifting leisurely and floppily away on long, broad wings and showing its pale underparts.
Some scientists argue that the seat of human emotion is in the musculature of the face. In his studies of evolution, Charles Darwin was the first to suggest that facial expressions are universal rather than culture-specific. Whether it is right or wrong to ascribe human traits to animals, the facial expression of the Short-eared Owl is often described as ‘ mean’.
The Short-eared Owl is a scarce winter visitor to Ireland. It rarely stays to breed. There is an annual influx of birds from Scandinavia, Russia and Iceland seeking to feed in our milder climes. The number that arrives each year varies greatly depending on the weather in its home range.
The Barn Owl is a pale brown and white owl that normally hunts at night. In contrast, the larger Short-eared Owl is dark, tawny, mottled brown and hunts small mammals. frogs and birds during the hours of daylight greatly increasing the chances of one being spotted.
A bird’s ear is a hole on the side of its head covered by feathers. It doesn’t have an ear flap like we have so the ear cannot normally be seen. In the Short-eared Owl, the ‘ear’ refers to is a tuft of feathers that sometimes sticks up on top of its head giving the impression that the bird has ears like a mammal.
The descriptive ‘short’ addition to the bird’s supposed auricular appendages is meant to distinguish it from a related species: the Long-eared Owl. However, since the ‘ear’ tufts may or may not be visible in either species they are not the best field mark for separating the pair of so-called eared owls.
At close range, iris colour separates the pair: bright yellow in the Short-eared Owl, and dark orange in the Long-eared Owl. If the ‘ear’ tufts are erect, they are small and indistinct in the Short-eared Owl as its name states but large and distinct in the Long-eared Owl.
The Long-eared Owl is a common breeder in Ireland in conifer plantations. Like the Barn Owl, it hunts by night.