Common Name: Burrowing Owl
Scientific Name: Athene cunicularia
Scientific Family : Strigidae
Scientific Order : Strigiformes
Appearance: The Burrowing Owl is a small owl (length 10 inches [25 cm], weight: 5 oz [ 155 g]) with long legs, a short tail and yellow eyes. They have a flat head, with a pale brown facial disk, and whitish eyebrows, throat, and chin. Most of the upperparts are sandy brown with whitish spots and barring. The upper chest and upper tips of the primaries and secondaries are darker brown with white barring. The tail is sandy brown with 3 or 4 whitish bars. Both genders appear similar, but juveniles show buffy upperwing coverts and fledglings have unmarked, buffy underparts.
Habitat/Where to find: The Burrowing Owl inhabits open country in arid and semiarid regions of North America, including grasslands, deserts, prairies, savannas, golf courses, airports, suburbs, and farmyards. Burrowing Owls breed along the west coast north to the San Francisco Bay Area and then east of the Sierra, and Cascade Mountains as far north as central Alberta and as far east as western Wisconsin. A disjunct population occurs on the Florida Peninsula and Caribbean Islands. The winter range extends as far south as Guatemala and El Salvador.
Sounds: The Burrowing Owl Male Burrowing Owls sing a monotonously-repeated, 2-note, nasal, hollow "hui-poor" or "coo-cooo", and females answer with short, clear "eeep" calls or rasping "kssshh" calls. Females also produce the "smack call", which is a copulatroy call consisting of a series of down-slurred notes. Other calls include a sharp "chuk" or "chack" given in a barking series, sometimes followed by a raspy scream "chee-twikit-twik". Juveniles beg with short, harsh, rasping calls.
Behavior: Unusual among owls, Burrowing Owls can be active both day and night, often perching conspicuously in daylight fence posts, utility wires, rocks, or mounds. Their flight is smooth and low to the ground, with upward swooping to reach their low perches When disturbed, agitated birds bob up and down by bending their legs, or mimic a rattlesnake's rattle if the birds are in their burrow. Courtship behavior includes ritual feeding, and pairs standing atop potential nest burrows while touching bills, rubbing necks, and stretching legs and wings.
Reproduction: Burrowing Owls form monogamous pairs and often form loose nesting colonies. They nest in abandoned small mammal borrows, which they sometimes enlarge slightly. Breeding adults line their burrows with cow and horse dung, grass, pellets, and feathers. Females lay 4-10 eggs and remain in the burrow during most of egg laying, and 21-30 days of incubation. Males feed their mates during egg laying, incubation, and brooding. The semialtricial young remain in the burrow for 28 days after hatching. Most pairs produce a single brood per season.
Food Habits: Burrowing Owls hunt their prey from low perches. They hover and pounce, or glean from the ground large insects, rodents, lizards, and birds.
Vital Statistics: Burrowing Owls are capable of breeding in their second year of life. The oldest known wild individual survived to at least 8 years and 8 months. In nonmigratory populations, adult survival ranges from 59-81% while juvenile survival ranges between 19-30%. Survival estimation in migratory populations is more difficult to estimate, but the true values probably range below the estimates for nonmigratory populations.
Migration/Dispersal: Family groups of adults and juveniles remain together on the natal territory until September, when the young disperse. In general, populations north of Texas are migratory during the winter, while more southern populations are year-round residents. Populations in Florida appear sedentary. Little information exists regarding the timing of migration and the routes taken by migratory populations. Most migrate south in September and north during the March-May period. Owls breeding in the Dakotas appear to winter in Texas, but some owls breeding in Canada winter in Mexico.
