Asio flammeus
Order Strigiformes
Family Strigidae
Adult.— Upper parts yellowish-brown, streaked with black; under parts buffy, streaked with dark brown, particularly on the breast; wings and tail, when spread, spotted and barred with white; disk blackish around the eyes; ear-tufts very short.
Immature.— Upper parts darker; under parts dull buffy, unstreaked; disk brownish-black.
Nest, on ground.
Eggs, white.
The Short-eared Owl is a rare and local permanent resident of New York and New England, but is chiefly met with as a migrant, especially along ocean beaches and in extensive marshes. It is occasionally as diurnal as the Snowy Owl, and may be seen beating over the marshes or sand dunes. When startled it sometimes flies to a post or knoll in the marsh or on the beach, and lights there. Dusk, however, is its favorite hunting-time, and it generally spends the day on the ground in thick grass. Its ear-tufts are not at all prominent, even in the live bird, but it may be known from the forest-haunting Barred Owl by the nature of the country in which it is generally found, by its smaller size, the lighter tone of its upper parts, and by the absence of barring on the breast.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)