[8][36][65] Fledging young call all with high-pitched, drawn-out notes, variously transcribed as feek, peeyee and pzeei, and are often likened to the noise of a gate swinging on a rusty hinge.

[1][9][70][72] The long-eared owl occurs much more broadly in North America during the non-breeding season and may found essentially all over the Midwest, Texas and as far south in Mexico as Colima, Veracruz and northern Oaxaca.

The species also occurs in the non-breeding season in Louisiana (but for the southeast) and much of northern Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina north to Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and southern Pennsylvania.

[87] Despite being adaptable to both very cold areas, including the taiga and scarcely Subarctic, and quite warm areas, including drier and/or arid parts of the subtropics, the long-eared owl is largely confined to temperate zones of the north and is less climatically adaptable than the short-eared owl, with the latter species acclimating to nearly all climates and making its homes both in the Arctic and the tropics whether wet and dry so long as open habitats are available.

[4] Birds that breed in central Asia have been recorded to winter in a wide variety of locales, including the Egyptian Nile valley, Pakistan, northern India and southern China.

[8] In North America, migrants generally sourced from Canada and the Upper Midwest winter almost anywhere in the remaining United States, however they will irruptively migrate as far as Georgia and several areas of Mexico and seldom in Florida.

Similar tendency towards so-called “nomadism” is shared by other widespread raptors semi-specialized to hunting voles over open ground, such as short-eared owls and hen harriers (Circus cyaneus).

[15][100] The phenomena of movements that seem to be nomadic or purportedly irruptive in nature may occur as well in Europe, though given the species' denser population in general there in comparison to North America may result in less noticeable wide variations in numbers.

[37][105] Long-eared owls tend to roost in the depths of the "darkest stands of trees" in order to conceal their presence, though they prefer being close to forested edge to allow access to hunting over more open ground.

Generally various species of mice are eaten in poor years for common voles but appear to be an inefficient substitute (at least in more northerly climes) based on the owls' lower breeding rates.

[133] Inclement weather in particular, including any kind of precipitation or high winds, seems to cause Italian long-eared owls to increase the diversity of prey that's routinely caught.

[138][139] In the Canary Islands, the introduced house mouse (Mus musculus) was deemed to primarily support the owls today, consisting of 69.5% of 3,628 prey items per the largest known study.

[140][141][142] In the Middle East, prey preferences varied based on soil composition in desert edge areas, with Israeli studies showing primary shifting rapidly from Gerbillus gerbil species to Meriones jirds to Günther's voles, with similar findings in wintering owls in Iran.

[166] In a well-studied population, Snake River region of southeastern Idaho as well as Owyhee county in the southwest part of the state, geomyoid rodents are usually the most prominent prey, especially the Great Basin pocket mouse (Perognathus parvus) and Ord's kangaroo rat (Dipodomys ordii) (often supplemented heavily with Peromyscus mice).

Cotton rats were the main prey in Janos Biosphere Reserve, Mexico (43.2% by number, 69.1% by biomass) and in Texas, in the latter slightly outnumbering (36%) the much smaller harvest mice (23%).

[171][172] Since the mean body size of hispid cotton rats (Sigmodon hispidus) caught reportedly is around 100 g (3.5 oz), they probably represent a very productive prey resource for long-eared owls.

Depending on circumstances, the mean size of northern pocket gophers taken in different areas can vary from 41 to 100 g (1.4 to 3.5 oz) or higher, but long-eared owls usually take juveniles outside of the Oregon study (weighing on the lower end of that mass scale).

[77] Exceptionally large contributor of insects, most often a variety of species or genera of beetle, to prey numbers are noted in some studies such as contributing 6.6% of the diet in Regional Park of Decima-Malafede in Italy, 17.5% in northeastern Greece and 13.3% in western Spain.

[81][146][184][214] Many diurnal raptors in Europe broadly overlap in dietary habits, largely taking voles where they are available, including most species of harrier, buzzards and some falcons, especially common kestrels (Falco tinnunculus).

Also, long-eared owls tendency to occur in quite open areas whilst hunting coupled with the loud vocalizations (including begging calls of their fledglings) and other auditory displays are all likely to court predators.

Goshawks and other Accipiter hawks are a particularly deadly threat among diurnal raptors due to their intensive searching hunting methods and willingness to dive into wooded thickets holding roosting owls.

In Germany, it was recorded that the male precedes copulation with calls and display flights, followed by strong waving wing signals and tilting their body while perched near female and/or the nest.

[4][99] During a defensive display, the parent ruffles up their plumage and partially spreads the wings to half open, trampling from one foot to the other, hissing and bill snapping and can look surprisingly large in this posture.

Among the wicker basket users, earlier nesters (i.e. March-early April) raised larger broods and had more fledglings than later (late April-early May), in part due to rising water tables making prey capture less ideal later in nesting season.

[12][14] In continental Europe, conditions are better than in England or Finland, perhaps due to the large population of common voles there that are absent in the more northerly countries, and nesting success averages higher.

Even though it was perceived early in the 20th century that the species is actually beneficial to human interests, many hunters continued to shoot them, claiming that they represent young individuals of the then nationally despised great horned owl.

[271] Long-eared owls potentially face lethal contamination with heavy metals such as mercury, organic biocides, including insecticides, fungicides and rodenticides and PCBs recorded.

[280] In areas such as Switzerland, to offset persecution and increase survival as well as to allow observers to watch them more easily, wintering owls in towns and cities were fed daily white lab mice.

[240] A decreasing trend has been observed in wintering owls in New Jersey, with 9 of 58 known roosts eliminated due to land development, while the remaining 49 have shown reductions or are no longer used over the course of 30 years.

[284] Broader studies of banding across Canada, gathered during long-term monitoring from consistent annual bird counts from 1966 to 1992, showed that long-eared owls have declined relatively significantly.