The Canadian population of Long-eared Owl is not well monitored. The Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) has minimal data on this largely nocturnal species. The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) detects the species somewhat more frequently, although there is risk of positive bias from increasing effort over time in searching for owls. Because most Long-eared Owls migrate out of Canada, the continental CBC trend is more relevant, but as only half of the North American population is from Canada, it is uncertain how accurately the results reflect the Canadian trend. The slight long-term decline of 14% since 1970 is therefore assumed to at least roughly describe the Canadian trend, but confidence in the assigned status of little change is low, especially as among the relatively few Christmas Bird Counts that sample the species in Canada, there has been a large decline of 52% over the same period. The Nocturnal Owl Survey is best suited to detecting Long-eared Owls, but only dates back to 2008; it shows a decrease of 29% over its first 14 years, suggesting a greater decline than indicated by the CBC. The second breeding bird atlases in Ontario (Konze, 2007), Quebec (Barden, 2019), and the Maritimes (Lauff, 2015) all documented greater distribution and abundance of Long-eared Owl than the first atlases roughly 20 years earlier, but caution that the results may reflect improved search effort rather than population trends.

The goal for Long-eared Owl is to maintain its population at or above the level it was at in the early 1970s, based on the Christmas Bird Count. Recent data show that the population is within its goal range.