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Long-eared Owls are medium-sized owls. Their plumage is highly cryptic. The two sexes are similar, but males tend to be on average paler and more heavily streaked than females. Their most prominent feature is a pair of long, creamy and dark-grey ear tufts that can be erected vertically. They have a prominent rufous to creamy facial mask with a black and white edge. Grey tufts of feathers between the eyes can give the impression of an "X" when seen from straight in front. The rest of the front is rufous to buff with heavy grey streaking. The folded wings are brownish-grey with dark-grey streaks, while the back is finely speckled dark-grey on lighter grey. The flight feathers are cinnamon with brownish-grey and dark-grey bars on the primaries and a dark-grey shoulder patch. The irises are dark-orange. The bill is dark-grey, legs and feet are grey. Fledgling young are off-white to light-grey with light vermiculation, some grey barring on the wing coverts and buff tints on their flight feathers. Their most prominent feature is a black facial mask around eyes with orange irises.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Long-eared Owl is available HERE .

Long-eared Owls are a strongly migratory species with four recognised races that populate large parts of Europe, Asia and North America. The permanent range of nominate race "otus" extends from the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean via southern and central Europe (up to 55 degrees, i.e. southern Norway and Sweden in the North) into subtropical and mid-latitude Asia, as far to the East as eastern Siberia and most of Japan. There is also a permanent population in north-western Africa. During the northern summers they extend their breeding range northwards to include the southern half of Scandinavia and the entire breadth of Asia up to a geographic latitude of about 60 degrees. During the northern winters part of the population move into western Turkey and the coastal fringe of the Middle East, even into the lower Nile valley. Another part of the population spends the winters in northern Pakistan/north-western India and the far-eastern population winters in eastern China, Korea and the southern islands of Japan. Race "canariensis" is found only on the the Canary Islands. Races "tuftsi" and "wilsonianus" populate large parts of North America, with race "tuftsi" found in the western half of the continent, race "wilsonianus" in the East. For more details see, e.g. Wikipedia .

In Europe and Asia only nominate race "otus" is found (see above).

Long-eared Owls have a preference for forest or woodland with open areas for hunting. They will often be found along the edges of forest or in copses amongst open areas such as grassland or farmland.

Race "otus"