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The UK Bird Atlas

Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus)Where and when to see it in the UK

Resident · reporting peaks January · Owls · BOU category AF

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

Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus)
User:Rodolphe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Short-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.

Short-eared Owl has been recorded in 1,285 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (43%) in records to 2026. Resident in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in January.

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
6% to 100%
Moderate
1% to 6%
Low
under 1%
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 86%1%Very high
February 60%<1%Very high
March 52%<1%Very high
April 53%<1%Very high
May 59%<1%Very high
June 42%<1%Very high
July 22%<1%Very high
August 24%<1%Very high
September 38%<1%Low
October 100%1%Very high
November 84%1%Very high
December 65%<1%Very high

Squares with the highest reporting rate in January

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HU42Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
J44Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland100%Very high
NH71Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NO10Perth and Kinross, Scotland100%Very high
NO41Fife, Scotland100%Very high
NU11Northumberland, England100%Very high
NU20Northumberland, England100%Very high
NX59Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland100%Very high
NX92Cumberland, England100%Very high
NY72Westmorland and Furness, 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.