Short-eared owl

    Asio flammeus

Castilian: Búho campestre

Catalan: Mussol emigrant

Gallego: Curruxa das xunqueiras

Euskera: Zingira-hontza

CLASIFICACIÓN:

Orden: Strigiformes

Family: Strigidae

Migratory status: Winter resident/Passage migrant

CONSERVATION STATUS:

On the National List of Threatened Species, it appears in the “Of Special Interest” category. In the 2004 edition of the Red Book of Spanish Birds (Libro Rojo de las Aves de España) it is listed as “Near Threatened”.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

listen song

THREATS

The location of these nests leaves them too exposed and thus accessible to predators such as dogs, cats, foxes, etc. Other threats include the usual ones, such as electrical cables, loss of habitat due to agricultural transformations, hunting, poisoning, and being run over by vehicles.La ubicación de los nidos, demasiado expuesta, los hace accesibles a depredadores como perros, gatos, zorros...etc. Otras amenzas son las habituales, como los tendidos eléctricos, pérdida de hábitat por transformaciones agrarias, los disparos, atropellos y los envenenamientos.

Length / size: 33-40 cm / 95-105 cm

Identification: Bird of prey with a pair of very short cephalic crests that serve to disguise its bird-like silhouette and to indicate a state of alert. Its plumage is brown and yellowish on its back and ochre-coloured on its underparts, with a complex pattern of spots, bars and dots that give it cryptic camouflage. Its eyes are yellow and enclosed by black spots. In flight the pale part under its wings is visible, with a black comma-shaped spot near its carpal area. Its black primaries and short striped tail are also visible.

Song: The male's song is a soft and deep "boo-oo-oo-oo-oo". Its call is a "cheh-ef" that gradually speeds up.

Diet: Its primary food source is moles of the genus Microtusand other small or medium-sized rodents, but it can also capture beetles, grasshoppers, reptiles and small birds. It is diurnal and captures its prey from perches or by beating its wings near the ground and launching itself bill-first once it has found its prey.

Reproduction: It begins in April. They nest in a depression in the ground, covered by scrubland, grassland or reedbeds.

HABITAT

It occupies open areas or areas with scattered scrubland, such as grain farms, fallow land, pastureland, bulrush, etc.

DISTRIBUTION

In Spain: Since the beginning of the 1990s there have been some breeding populations in Aragon, La Rioja, Castile-La Mancha, Madrid, Extremadura, and Castile and León.

In Castile and León: It breeds in Tierra de Campos, in the provinces of Valladolid, León, Zamora and Palencia.

Movements and migrations: Migratory or partially migratory species. European populations winter in the southern latitudes of the continent or cross the Strait of Gibraltar to reach Africa. In late September, the first specimens from outside begin to reach our country, and in March they return to their breeding areas.

POPULATION

In Spain: There are no precise figures.

In Castile and León: