Burrowing Owl
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| Athene cunicularia (Molina, 1782) |
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Speotyto cunicularia |
The Burrowing Owl, Athene cunicularia, is a small, long-legged owl found throughout open landscapes of North and South America.[1] There are two subspecies in North America: A. c. hypugaea of southern Canada, western USA, and Mexico; and A. c. floridana of Florida and some Caribbean islands. Other subspecies are recognized in Central and South America.
Burrowing owls can be found in grasslands, rangelands, agricultural areas, deserts, or any other dry, open area with low vegetation.[2] Unlike most owls, burrowing owls are often active during the day. However, most hunting is done at night.
They are year-round residents in the southern areas of their range. Birds that breed in Canada and northern USA usually migrate south to Mexico and southern USA during winter months.
Adults have brown plumage with white spotting. The belly is white with brown bars. Their eyes and bill are yellow and they have long legs. The females are darker than the males. The average adult is slightly larger than a robin, [3] at 25 cm (10 inches) length, 53 cm (21 inches) wingspan, 170g (6 oz) weight [4]. The young owls look similar to the adults except that they have a buff bar across their wings and their chests are covered in a white to buff down.
The burrowing owl is endangered in Canada, threatened in Mexico, and a species of special concern in most of the western USA. The major reasons for declining populations are control programs for prairie dogs and loss of habitat. On the IUCN Red List, however, it is a species of Least Concern because of a large global population.
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 badgers, coyotes, and snakes. They are also killed by feral and domestic cats and dogs.
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[edit] Mating and Nesting
The nesting season begins in late March or April. Burrowing owls are usually monogamous, but occasionally a male will have two mates.[5] Pairs of owls will sometimes nest in loose colonies. Their typical breeding habitat is open grassland or prairie, but they can occasionally adapt to other open areas like airports, golf courses, and agricultural fields. Burrowing owls are slightly tolerant of human presence, often nesting near roads, farms, homes, and regularly maintained irrigation canals.
The owls nest in an underground burrow, hence the name Burrowing Owl. They use burrows created by other burrowing animals such as prairie dogs or ground squirrels.[citation needed] If burrows are unavailable and the soil is not hard or rocky, the owls may excavate their own. Burrowing owls will also nest in shallow, underground, man-made structures that have easy access to the surface.
The female can lay around 10-12 eggs over a two week period. She will then incubate the eggs for three weeks while the male brings her food. After the eggs hatch both parents will feed the chicks. Four weeks after hatching, the chicks are able to make short flights and begin leaving the nest burrow. The parents will still help feed the chicks for 1 to 3 months. While most of the eggs will hatch, only four to five chicks usually survive to leave the nest.
During the nesting season, burrowing owls will line the burrow with mammal dung, usually from cattle. The dung helps to control the microclimate inside the burrow and to attract insects, which the owls eat.
Site fidelity rates appear to vary among populations. In southern locations, owls will frequently reuse a nest several years in a row. Owls in migratory northern populations are less likely to return to the same burrow every year. Also, as with many other birds, the female owls are more likely to disperse to a different site than are male owls.
[edit] Diet
The highly variable diet includes small mammals, small birds, snakes, lizards, frogs, insects, and scorpions. But the owls mainly eat large insects and small rodents. Although burrowing owls often live in close proximity to ground squirrels, they rarely prey upon them. Unlike other owls, they also eat fruits and seeds, especially the fruit of Tesajilla and prickly pear cactus. When hunting they wait on a perch until they spot prey. Then they swoop down on prey or fly up to catch insects in flight. Sometimes they chase prey on foot across the ground.
[edit] Burrowing owls in fiction
Carl Hiaasen's young adult novel Hoot (2002) is about a group of schoolkids trying to stop the planned construction of a pancake house that would go hand in hand with the destruction of the burrowing owls' habitat in a small town in Florida. Live burrowing owls were featured in the movie adaptation of the book, Hoot.
There is also a burrowing owl named Digger featured in the Guardians of Ga'hoole series by Kathryn Lasky.
[edit] Burrowing owls in music
The Philadelphia-based 1980s satirical pop punk band Dead Milkmen wrote "Stuart", a narrative song in which the narrator expresses incredulity at the sight of a neighbor kid looking for his pet "burrow owl" in a tree: "Everyone knows that a burrow owl lives in a hole in the ground! Why the hell do you think they call it a burrow owl, anyway?"
In addition to Stuart, the burrow owl has been included, sometimes subtly (Other times not.) in other songs by the Milkmen, including the repeated chanting of it's name by high pitched voices in the background of the song "Smokin' Banana Peels".
 Athene cunicularia |
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Athene cunicularia. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Levey DJ, Duncan RS, Levins CF (2004). "Animal behaviour: use of dung as a tool by burrowing owls". Nature 431 (7004): 39. PMID 15343324.
- Haug EA, Milsap BA, Martell MS (1993) Burrowing owl (Speotyto cunicularia). The Birds of North America, No. 61 (Poole A, Gill F editors). The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia and The American Ornithologists' Union, Washington, D.C.
- Moulton CE, Brady RS, Belthoff JR (2005) A comparison of breeding season food habits of burrowing owls nesting in agricultural and nonagricultural habitat in Idaho. Journal of Raptor Research 39: 429-438.
- Klute DS, Ayers LW, Green MT, Howe WH, Jones SL, Shaffer JA, Sheffield SR, Zimmerman TS (2003) A status assessment and conservation plan for the western burrowing owl in the United States. US Dept of Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service, Biological Technical Pulication FWS/BTP-R6001-2003, Washington, D.C.
- DeSante DF, Ruhlen ED, Rosenberg DK (2004) Density and abundance of burrowing owls in the agricultural matrix of the Imperial Valley, California. Studies in Avian Biology 27: 116-119.
- Lutz RS, Plumpton DL (1999) Philopatry and nest site reuse by burrowing owls: implications for productivity. Journal of Raptor Research 33: 149-153.
