Short-eared Owl

How to find it

No site is reliable for this owl in Costa Rica, so go with an open mind and treat any sighting as a gift. Range wide, it often starts hunting 30 to 60 minutes before sunset, though daytime activity is not unusual. Dusk over open grassland is the best time to look. That is general advice for the species, not specific to Costa Rica. A Costa Rican blog suggests checking places where Long-eared and Short-eared Owls might turn up.

How to recognise it

The face does most of the work, and these marks describe the species in general.

Yellow-orange eyes are ringed in black, which gives a mascara look. Pale facial discs surround the eyes like a mask. The ear tufts are very short and usually hidden, so many views show a rounded head with no tufts at all.

In flight the bird looks floppy, with irregular wingbeats, and it can seem moth-like or bat-like. The build is slimmer than that of the Long-eared Owl, the bird it is most often compared with.

What it sounds like

Recording: Stuart Fisher, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Range wide, this owl hunts by flying low and slow over open ground, or from a perch. It is more active by day than most owls, and it often hangs almost still in the air over tall grass, without truly hovering, as it watches for rodents below.

The species is nomadic and erratic, and it settles in one area only while breeding. That helps explain why a few birds turn up far outside the normal range. Outside the breeding season it can roost communally, with up to dozens of birds together where food is plentiful.

Where it lives

Range wide, the Short-eared Owl lives in open country and grasslands, and avoids forest.

In Costa Rica the only named locality is Rincón de Cubillos, in San José province, where the historic specimen was collected and is now kept in the National Museum collection. Small numbers once wintered in marshes of the Central Valley and probably other parts of the country.

Similar birds

The Long-eared Owl is the bird to compare. The Short-eared has much smaller, usually hidden ear tufts, a black ring around each yellow eye, and a slimmer build. Hardly visible ear tufts and yellow eyes also separate it from the Striped Owl, another eared owl of the Americas.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Lechuza Campestre is the Costa Rican Spanish name. Other Spanish names in use for the species include búho campestre, lechuzón de pajonal, nuco and lechuza de sabana, though it is not stated which are used in Costa Rica.

Status and conservation

The AOCR lists it in category A, and in Costa Rica it is a vagrant, rare or accidental, known from only two individuals.

Photography tips

Range wide, it is partly active by day and often seen in the afternoon and at dawn. It flies low over open ground in slow glides broken by quiet wingbeats, so it can be watched in the open.