Gould commented 'In England, this bird is known to sportsmen as the Woodcock Owl, from the circumstance of its numbers being greatly augmented about the time of the arrival of that bird in November...they [the Short-eared Owl] spread over the whole country, and are frequently to be met with in the latter part of the Partridge-season, among the great turnip-fields and low sedgy flats of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Cambridge and Huntingdon shires.'

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds north and central Eurasia, Hawaiian Islands, western central and northeastern North America, Greater Antilles and South America to Tierra del Fuego. Northern populations winter south to north and northeast Africa, Arabia, south Asia, Philippines, Hawaiian Islands, and from Canada south to central Mexico, Gulf coast and south Florida