Skip to content

Only 2% of the Southern Québec Study Area Was Classified as Very High-Quality Short-eared Owl Breeding Habitat

Short-eared Owl at Delta, British Columbia, Canada
Research · Ecology

A 2026 study of short-eared owls (Asio flammeus) in southern Québec, Canada found that only about 2% of the modelled study area fell in the highest breeding-habitat quality class. This describes modelled environmental suitability, not the proportion of the landscape known to contain nests or owls. The model was built from more than 25 years of monitoring data collected between 1994 and 2019 and was independently evaluated with observations from eBird and NatureCounts.

Short-eared owls are difficult to monitor because they are relatively inconspicuous, are most active around dawn and dusk, and can shift breeding sites between years. That mobility makes repeated surveys of the same places unreliable and helps explain why the study combined habitat modelling, seasonal occurrence and other bird species as possible survey cues.

The highest-quality areas were concentrated at lower elevations in large open landscapes where agriculture was important but did not dominate the surrounding land cover. More than 70% of independent breeding-season observations fell within habitat classified as good or excellent, while extensively forested landscapes were generally less suitable.

Breeding sites were rarely reused in consecutive years

The study also showed low site fidelity — repeated use of the same breeding site across years. Only 17% of breeding sites were occupied in more than one year, and just 6% were occupied in two consecutive years. Presence during the non-breeding season did not reliably predict where owls would occur during the following breeding season. The research team notes that this mobility may be linked to year-to-year fluctuations in small rodents, the owls’ main prey, although the study did not test that mechanism directly.

Vesper sparrows could help target owl surveys

To improve survey efficiency, the researchers examined more than 131,000 eBird checklists from predicted high-quality habitat. Among 195 bird species, vesper sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus) showed the strongest association with short-eared owl occurrence and was recorded almost three times as often at sites where the owl had been detected. In this context, a proxy species is an easier-to-detect bird whose occurrence helps identify places where the harder-to-detect target species may also be worth searching for. The association does not mean the owl depends biologically on vesper sparrows. The authors propose combining habitat quality with such avian proxies to focus future short-eared owl surveys.

Sources and image credit

  1. Casabona Amat, C., Hachey, M.-H., Côté, P., Therrien, J.-F., & Lemaître, J. (2026). Enhancing detection of short-eared owls in Québec: Habitat quality, seasonal occurrence, and avian proxies. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 90(6), e70238. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.70238Primary open-access research article first published 19 June 2026. Monitoring data from 1994–2019 were used to model breeding habitat in southern Québec. Only about 2% of the modelled area was classified as very high quality; independent validation placed more than 70% of breeding observations in good or excellent habitat. Only 17% of breeding sites were occupied in multiple years and 6% in consecutive years. Vesper Sparrow was recorded almost three times as often at sites where Short-eared Owls had been detected.
  2. Casabona, C. (2026, July 10). The Short-eared Owl: better understanding its habitat to improve monitoring. Tadoussac Bird Observatory.Research-team summary of the published study, providing the reported habitat-quality, site-fidelity and avian-proxy results.

Image: nigel / Wikimedia Commons / Flickr — wild Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus) at Delta, British Columbia, Canada, photographed 20 February 2011; uncropped original; representative Canadian species image, not a bird from the Québec study · CC BY 2.0 · Source

About this content: This story was produced with AI assistance within an editorial workflow developed by Wildlife Vagabond. Editorial responsibility remains with Wildlife Vagabond.How AI is used

Ecology

SPECIES IN THIS STORY

Species in this story

Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus Explore species

Independent research and conservation news archive

Did you find this information useful?

Wildlife Vagabond is independently built and maintained. Voluntary support helps cover source verification, hosting and continued work on research and conservation news.

Support Wildlife Vagabond

The news archive will remain freely available.