Celebrity takes many forms.

In Katama, you don’t need to be a sports hero, musician or actress to be famous. You just need to be small-mammal eating, floppy-flying, photogenic bird of prey. The short-eared owl fits the bill. These birds are currently making a star statement in the Katama fields, though unfortunately not a strong comeback on our Island and in our state.

Asio flammeus even have a stage name, with their scientific nomenclature loosely translating to fiery horned one. These birds were first recognized in formal ornithological circles as Strinx flammea in 1763 by Danish bishop Erik Pontoppidan, whose tome The Natural History of Denmark and Norway documented this creature as well as mermaids, kraken and sea serpents in its pages. The bishop’s name was not lost to history, and years later Herman Melville mentioned the “great Kraken of Bishop Pontoppidan” in Moby Dick.

Though there have been limited sightings of Pontoppidan’s sea creatures, Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes short-eared owls as the “world’s most widely distributed owls.” These are present on all continents except Antarctica and Australia. Observing them here, however, is a lucky and uncommon occurrence, though not as rare as those others described by Pontoppidan.

In the mid-nineteenth century, short-eared owls were likely common and breeding in the Commonwealth’s agrarian landscapes. By 1896, these owls had mostly ceased reproducing on mainland Massachusetts and, over the next 100 years, there were only limited breeding records on the Cape, Vineyard, Nantucket and other local offshore islands. 

Nesting on the ground, as short-eared owls do, is a tough strategy, especially with predators such as skunk and raccoon. This owl’s decline also followed the loss of their coastal, open habitats and coincided with an increase in development in the places they prefer to live and hunt.

Today, as described by Massachusetts

ornithologist William Peabody in 1839, short-eared owls “are another of those wanderers which occasionally leave their northern home to visit us.” We are most likely to see them as seasonal visitors in winter and at places such as Katama, Long Point or Quansoo, which still provide their preferred open habitats. 

Look for a crow-sized bird with broad, rounded wings and rounded tail flying low along marshes and open fields. Short-eared owl eyes are unforgettable: black rimmed and yellow peepers on their pale facial disk. Females tend to be slightly larger with darker body patterns. Both sexes have small hidden ear tufts that come out when they are disturbed or in defensive mode. Normally, these remain tucked away and unseen.

These owls can be seen hunting during the day, often taking up the charge of soaring over the fields from harrier hawks as dusk comes. Their preferred foodstuff includes small mammals such as voles, mice, squirrel and rabbits, though they can eat other birds and insects when needed.

A sighting of short-eared owls is always significant, but more so listen for its call, since these birds only vocalize when breeding and nesting. Short-eared owl song is described as a series of enticing hoots from the males and barks, screams and whines from the female if defending the nest — and to hear either would be a cause for celebration. The sound might be a signal that these luminaries could again be mating and reproducing in our midst — a welcome opportunity to increase the numbers of this species listed as endangered in Massachusetts.

These luminaries of the sky are effortless and elegant on the wing and lyrically described by Massachusetts’ ornithologist Edward Howe Forbush [Birds of Massachusetts and Other New England States]: “In air it exemplifies the poetry of motion. Its pinions press softly on the resistant element and waft the bird gently about over its favorite moors as lightly as a night-moth.” 

Suzan Bellincampi is director of the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown, and author of Martha’s Vineyard: A Field Guide to Island Nature and The Nature of Martha’s Vineyard.