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The UK Bird Atlas

Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks September · Owls · BOU category AF

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)
Luis nunes alberto, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Long-eared Owl: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Long-eared Owl has been recorded in 310 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (10%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Reporting peaks in September.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
100% or more of visits
High
100% to 100%
Moderate
100% to 100%
Low
under 100%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 0%<1%Very high
February 72%<1%Very high
March 0%<1%Very high
April 0%<1%Very high
May 0%<1%Very high
June 22%<1%Very high
July 26%<1%Very high
August 79%<1%Very high
September 100%<1%Very high
October 0%<1%Very high
November 29%<1%Very high
December 0%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in September

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
H13Fermanagh and Omagh, Northern Ireland100%Very high
J28Antrim and Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland100%Very high
NO09Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NR39Argyll and Bute, Scotland100%Very high
NZ35Sunderland, England100%Very high
SC39Isle of Man100%Very high
SE36North Yorkshire, England100%Very high
SE50Doncaster, England100%Very high
SJ25Flintshire, Wales100%Very high
SJ75Cheshire East, England100%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.