Definition of "short-eared" []

• In ornithology, having short plumicorns: as, the short-eared owl, Asio accipitrinus, formerly Strix brachyotus or Brachyotus palustris.

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "A short-eared owl roosts on a wooden fencepost, craning its head at impossible angles to pick up the soft sounds of field mice in the dense marsh grass."
• "When I was growing up, I would regularly see short-eared owls in winter: on the north Kent marshes, in East Anglia, and once even on my local patch – Wraysbury Gravel Pits, just west of Heathrow."
• "Not just because it was a short-eared owl – the first I had seen in my new home county – but because most birds had already fled the cold weather, and the fields behind my home were devoid of life."