Burrowing Owl

Athene cunicularia

The Burrowing Owl has also been known as Ground Owl, Prairie Dog Owl, Rattlesnake Owl, Howdy Owl, Cuckoo Owl, Tunnel Owl, Gopher Owl, and Hill Owl.

Description: A small ground-dwelling Owl with a round head and no ear tufts. They have white eyebrows, yellow eyes, and long legs. The Owl is sandy coloured on the head, back, and upperparts of the wings and white-to-cream with barring on the breast and belly and a prominent white chin stripe. They have a rounded head, and yellow eyes with white eyebrows. The young are brown on the head, back, and wings with a white belly and chest. They moult into an adult-like plumage during their first summer. Burrowing Owls are comparatively easy to see because they are often active in daylight, and are surprisingly bold and approachable. The females are usually darker than the males.
Burrowing Owls fly with irregular, jerky wingbeats and frequently make long glides, interspersed with rapid wingbeats. They hover during hunting and courtship, and may flap their wings asynchronously (not up and down together).

Size: Length 21.6-28 cm (8½-11 inches) Wingspan 50.8-61.0 cm (20-24 inches)
Weight 170.1-214g (6-7½ oz)

Voice: The main call is given only by adult males mainly when near the burrow to attract a female. A two-syllable "who-who" is given at the entrance of a promising burrow. This call is also associated with breeding, and territory defence. Other sounds called the "rasp", "chuck", "chatter", and "scream" have been described. Juveniles give a rattlesnake-like buzz when threatened in the burrow, and adults give a short, low-level "chuck" call to warn of approaching predators. This is usually accompanied by bobbing the head up and down.

Hunting & Food: Burrowing Owls feed on a wide variety of prey, changing food habits as location and time of year determine availability. Large arthropods, mainly beetles and grasshoppers, comprise a large portion of their diet. Small mammals, especially mice, rats, gophers, and ground squirrels, are also important food items. Other prey animals include: reptiles and amphibians, scorpions, young cottontail rabbits, bats, and birds, such as sparrows and horned larks. These Owls are quite versatile in the ways they capture prey. They chase down grasshoppers and beetles on the ground, use their talons to catch large insects in the air, or hover in mid-air before swooping down on unsuspecting prey. They also watch from perches, then glide silently toward their target. Burrowing Owls are primarily active at dusk and dawn (crepuscular), but will hunt throughout a 24-hour period, especially when they have young to feed. Unlike other Owls, they also eat fruits and seeds, especially the fruit of Tesajilla and prickly pear cactus.

Breeding: The nesting season begins in late March or April. Burrowing Owls are usually monogamous but occasionally a male will have 2 mates. Courtship displays include flashing white markings, cooing, bowing, scratching and nipping. The male performs display flights, rising quickly to 30 meters (100 feet), hovering for 5 to 10 seconds, then dropping 15 meters (50 feet). This sequence is repeated many times. Circling flights also occur. Burrowing Owls nest underground in abandoned burrows dug by mammals or if soil conditions allow they will dig their own burrows. They will also use man made nest boxes placed underground. They often line their nest with an assortment of dry materials. Adults usually return to the same burrow or a nearby area each year. One or more "satellite" burrows can usually be found near the nest burrow, and are used by adult males during the nesting period and by juvenile Owls for a few weeks after they emerge from the nest. 6 to 9 (sometimes up to 12) white eggs are laid a day apart, which are incubated for 28-30 days by the female only. The male brings food to the female during incubation, and stands guard near the burrow by day. The care of the young while still in the nest is performed by the male. At 14 days, the young may be seen roosting at the entrance to the burrow, waiting for the adults to return with food. They leave the nest at about 44 days and begin chasing living insects when 49-56 days old.

Mortality: Burrowing Owls are able to live for at least 9 years in the wild and over 10 years in captivity. They are often killed by vehicles when crossing roads, and have many natural enemies, including larger Owls, hawks, falcons, badgers, skunks, ferrets, armadillos, snakes, and domestic cats and dogs.
They are listed as endangered, threatened, or a species of special concern in most states and provinces where they occur.

Habitat: Burrowing Owls are found in open, dry grasslands, agricultural and range lands, and desert habitats often associated with burrowing animals, particularly prairie dogs, ground squirrels and badgers. They can also inhabit grass, forb, and shrub stages of pinyon and ponderosa pine habitats. They commonly perch on fence posts or on top of mounds outside the burrow.
Burrowing Owls have been reported to nest in loose colonies. Such groupings may be a response to a local abundance of burrows and food, or an adaptation for mutual defence. Colony members can alert each other to the approach of predators and join in driving them off. During the nesting season, adult males forage over a home range of 2 to 3 square kilometres. Ranges of neighbouring males may overlap considerably. A small area around the nest burrow is aggressively defended against intrusions by other Burrowing Owls and predators.

Distribution: Burrowing Owls are present in North America , and breed across the grassland regions of southern Alberta , Saskatchewan and Manitobaand. They occur in all states west of the Mississippi Valley , breed south through the western and mid-western States. A separate subspecies is found in Florida and the Carribean Islands . They extend south into Mexico , Central America and South America but populations have declined in many areas due to human-caused habitat loss or alteration. Birds from the northern part of the U.S. and Canada are migratory.