I was (again/still etc etc) transferring posts across from my old blog to 10,000 Birds this morning when I came across a photo-gallery I’d almost forgotten about, and that I think is just too striking to bury into the archives without flagging up. The bird in the photos isn’t particularly rare (scarce, but not yet rare), and I suspect most 10,000 Birds readers will have seen one before - but I wonder how many readers will have had views as good as I did the day I took these photographs? Most of my other sightings of the totally captivating Burrowing Owl has been as distant dots seen through fences around air-bases for example, but on this particularly fortuitous day my colleagues and myself slowly inched our car within a few yards, took our images, and drove slowly away without the owl even moving…memorable and satisfying in equal measures! Take a look and see if you agree…

Burrowing Owl Athene cunicularia

Central Valley, California: 06 March 2005

Just 10 inches/25 centimetres long Burrowing Owls are so named because they live underground in burrows that have been dug out by small mammals like ground squirrels and prairie dogs, and are distributed from the Mississippi to the Pacific and from the Canadian prairie provinces into South America.

Burrowing Owls have disappeared from much of their historic range: current population estimates are not well known but trend data suggests significant declines across their range - perhaps to less than 10,000 breeding pairs. The greatest threat to these beautiful little owls is habitat destruction and degradation caused primarily by land development, the use of pesticides, efforts to eradicate prairie dogs (which live side by side with Burrowing Owls), and natural predation by Horned Owls, hawks, foxes, badgers and even domestic pets.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All photographs © Charlie Moores.