Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

The range of the bur­row­ing owls in­cludes non-breed­ing, year-round, and breed­ing pop­u­la­tions. Non-breed­ing pop­u­la­tions range from Cen­tral Amer­ica (Hon­duras) north­ward along the east coast of Cen­tral Amer­ica into east Texas and Louisiana. They also con­tinue north­ward from the west coast of Cen­tral Amer­ica to just south of the bor­ders of Ari­zona and New Mex­ico. From here, the year-round pop­u­la­tions re­side. The year-round pop­u­la­tion ex­tends north through Baja penin­sula and south­ern Cal­i­for­nia, east­ward to cen­tral Ari­zona and New Mex­ico and north­ern Texas. Fi­nally, the breed­ing range ex­tends north through the prairies of south­ern Al­berta, Saskatchewan and Man­i­toba Canada. There is a res­i­dent pop­u­la­tion in cen­tral and south Florida, and Caribbean Is­lands. (Brink­ley and Tufts, 2007; Haug, et al., 2014; Man­ning, 2011; Pe­ter­son, 1980; Sarno, et al., 2012)

• Biogeographic Regions
• nearctic
  • native
• neotropical
  • native

Habi­tat

Bur­row­ing owls’ habi­tats are open areas that are open-canopied, with sparse ground veg­e­ta­tion and few trees. Habi­tats gen­er­ally in­clude agri­cul­tural lands, deserts, grass­lands, prairies, and plains. This can also in­clude urban va­cant lots, air­ports, golf courses, and fair­grounds. Bur­row­ing owls are com­monly found in bur­rows aban­doned by other an­i­mals such as bad­gers (Taxidea taxus), ground squir­rels, desert tor­toise (Go­pherus agas­sizii), go­pher tor­toises (Go­pherus polyphe­mus), prairie dogs (Cyno­mys), coy­otes (Canis la­trans) and foxes. Owls in the Florida pop­u­la­tion often dig their own bur­rows. The bur­rows are gen­er­ally 3 to 3.7 me­ters in length, an­gled down­wards, so that the sun­light can­not reach the bot­tom of the bur­row. (Bar­clay, et al., 2011; Haug, et al., 2014; Man­ning, 2011)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate

• Terrestrial Biomes
• desert or dune
• savanna or grassland

• Other Habitat Features
• urban
• agricultural

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Both male and fe­male bur­row­ing owls weigh in at 127 to 255 grams. They are small in stature mea­sur­ing be­tween 19 to 25 cm tall and have a wingspan roughly 53 to 61 cm. Com­pared to their body size they have long legs and a short tail. They have bril­liant yel­low eyes that are arched by white eye­brows and no ear tufts. Adult plumage is brown with barred stripes on the chest, a white chin stripe and spots on the back. Ju­ve­niles have no bars on the chest and few spots on the back. Bur­row­ing owl chests are dingy white to a buff white. Sex­ual di­mor­phism, if it ex­ists, is min­i­mal. Some stud­ies re­port that males, on av­er­age, weigh 3% more than fe­males. How­ever, this dif­fer­ence is in­sub­stan­tial be­cause of the wide ranges in adult weights. (Brink­ley and Tufts, 2007; Haug, et al., 2014; Pe­ter­son, 1980)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  127 to 255 g

  4.48 to 8.99 oz

• Range length

  19 to 25 cm

  7.48 to 9.84 in

• Range wingspan

  53 to 61 cm

  20.87 to 24.02 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Bur­row­ing owls breed an­nu­ally and are monog­a­mous. Courtship can in­clude singing, preen­ing and a pre­sen­ta­tion of food by the male. Quick flight dis­plays have been ob­served up to 30 m, fol­lowed by hov­er­ing, and a swift de­scent. This pat­tern is re­peated sev­eral times. The male dis­plays and calls the fe­male and when she ar­rives, the male mounts her and cop­u­la­tion is com­pleted in sec­onds. This se­quence may be re­peated. ("Species as­sess­ment for West­ern bur­row­ing owl (Athene cu­nic­u­laria hy­pu­gaea)", 2004; Haug, et al., 2014; Machicote, et al., 2004)

• Mating System
• monogamous

The breed­ing sea­son for bur­row­ing owls can be early Feb­ru­ary to late May, de­pend­ing on the ge­o­graph­i­cal re­gion. Bur­row­ing owls can have more than one clutch in a sea­son but it is not nor­mal. They can have be­tween 2 and 12 off­spring an­nu­ally. Egg hatch time is 28 to 30 days with a birth mass of 8 to 9 grams. Off­spring in­de­pen­dence oc­curs around 53 days, and sex­ual ma­tu­rity around 10 months. Bur­row­ing owls de­fend the bur­row nest, in­creas­ing their ag­gres­sion as the eggs hatch. Bur­row sizes vary de­pend­ing on the ter­res­trial habi­tat. The av­er­age di­men­sion of a bur­row de­pends on the an­i­mal that ex­ca­vated it. In Florida, bur­rows are gen­er­ally dug by the owls and are ap­prox­i­mately 1 m deep and ap­prox­i­mately 2 to 3 m in length. Most bur­rows have a slight curve to them so sun­light does not reach to the nest cav­ity. It is thought that the male picks the bur­row. ("Species as­sess­ment for West­ern bur­row­ing owl (Athene cu­nic­u­laria hy­pu­gaea)", 2004; Haug, et al., 2014; Machicote, et al., 2004; Welty, et al., 2012)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Anual

• Breeding season

  February to May depending on location

• Range eggs per season

  2 to 12

• Average eggs per season

  6

  AnAge

• Range time to hatching

  28 to 30 days

• Range fledging age

  44 to 53 days

• Average fledging age

  48 days

• Average time to independence

  53 days

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  10 to 10 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  10 to 10 months

Parental roles for bur­row­ing owls vary be­tween sexes. The male’s role is to hunt, feed­ing him­self and the fe­male. The fe­male lays and in­cu­bates the eggs, and takes care of all the brood work. The male will bring the food to the bur­row and trans­fer it his mate, and she will feed her­self and tear off pieces for the chicks to eat. The fe­male will not stray from the young until they can ther­moreg­u­late. The fe­male starts to stray far­ther from the bur­row hunt­ing and for­ag­ing when the chicks are around two weeks old and have be­come less de­pen­dent. The fledg­lings are in­de­pen­dent around 44 to 53 days. ("Species as­sess­ment for West­ern bur­row­ing owl (Athene cu­nic­u­laria hy­pu­gaea)", 2004; Con­way, et al., 2012; Haug, et al., 2014; Thiele, et al., 2013)

• Parental Investment
• altricial
• male parental care
• female parental care
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • male
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• post-independence association with parents

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Bur­row­ing owls live 6 to 8 years in the wild and up to 10 years in cap­tiv­ity. The longest know lifes­pan in the wild is 11 years. In the wild, two-thirds do not live to adult­hood. Most mor­tal­ity hap­pens be­tween fledg­ing and the end of year one. A few of the causes of mor­tal­ity the first year are prey den­sity being too low, in­ex­pe­ri­ence in cap­tur­ing food, preda­tors and par­a­sites. ("BBL - Longevity Records of North Amer­i­can Birds", 2011; "Species as­sess­ment for West­ern bur­row­ing owl (Athene cu­nic­u­laria hy­pu­gaea)", 2004; Haug, et al., 2014)

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  11 (high) years

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  10 (high) years

• Typical lifespan
  Status: wild

  6 to 8 years

Be­hav­ior

Bur­row­ing owls use aban­doned bur­rows of colo­nial species such as prairie dogs (Cyno­mys), which cause them to have a semi-colo­nial ex­is­tence. These owls roost in a de­pres­sion in the ground or on the mound of the nest site. Males can choose a sep­a­rate roost­ing bur­row site, roost­ing in shrubs and trees but this is not as com­mon. Bur­row­ing owls gen­er­ally stay on the ground or low to it, perch­ing on the nest site mound or on a low fence post or small shrub. They walk, hop and run in search of in­sects and small mam­mals. Bur­row­ing owls also use a flight ap­proach to hunt prey by tak­ing to the wing and hov­er­ing above the ground in search of prey. They also use flight to es­cape preda­tors and to de­fend the nest site.

Bur­row­ing owls are di­ur­nal, ac­tive all day, but con­cen­trate hunt­ing ac­tiv­ity around sun­rise and sun­set. This species will also spend some time dur­ing their day stretch­ing and preen­ing. Bur­row­ing owls will bathe in a pud­dle or even a rain shower is enough for their bath. They will also take a dust bath in a shal­low de­pres­sion in the dirt, flick­ing it through their feath­ers to dis­place mites. ("Species as­sess­ment for West­ern bur­row­ing owl (Athene cu­nic­u­laria hy­pu­gaea)", 2004; Haug, et al., 2014; Lynch, 2007; Man­ning, 2011)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• fossorial
• flies
• glides
• saltatorial
• diurnal
• crepuscular
• motile
• migratory
• sedentary

• Range territory size

  0.45 to 2.4 km^2

• Average territory size

  1.95 km^2

Home Range

The bur­row­ing owl home range is es­ti­mated to be 45ha (Rosen­berg and Haley 2004) to 240ha (Haug and Oliphant 1990). Ter­ri­tory around the nest ranges from 0.45 to 2.4 kilo­me­ters squared. The dif­fer­ence in vari­a­tion in es­ti­ma­tion of home range is prob­a­bly due to sev­eral vari­ables like the land­scape, the avail­abil­ity of prey and how far apart the aban­doned bur­rows are from each other. For ex­am­ple, in the case of an aban­doned prairie dog (Cyno­mys) town, the dis­tance be­tween bur­rows in colonies may vary from 14m to 900m. ("Species as­sess­ment for West­ern bur­row­ing owl (Athene cu­nic­u­laria hy­pu­gaea)", 2004; Haug and Oliphant, 1990; Haug, et al., 2014; Rosen­berg and Haley, 2004)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Adult bur­row­ing owls have been iden­ti­fied as hav­ing 13 unique vo­cal­iza­tions, and the ju­ve­nile birds hav­ing only 3 vo­cal­iza­tions, con­sist of de­fense calls, food beg­ging wines, and dis­tress calls. Their pri­mary song is a two-note coo-coooo or at night a co-hoo, with higher pitches than mourn­ing doves (Zenaida macroura). The two-note song used by the male for es­tab­lish­ment of pairs, ter­ri­to­r­ial de­fense and pre­mat­ing rit­ual. When de­fend­ing the nest they can scream, cluck and chat­ter. Non-vo­cal­iza­tion meth­ods of com­mu­ni­ca­tion are bill snap­ping and a wing flap for dis­tress. Bur­row­ing owls have binoc­u­lar vi­sion their field of view is about 110 de­grees. They are ca­pa­ble of turn­ing their head 270 de­grees. (Haug, et al., 2014; Pe­ter­son, 1980)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Bur­row­ing owls con­sume a va­ri­ety of in­sects, in­clud­ing: grasshop­pers, crick­ets and bee­tles. Ap­prox­i­mately 90% of their diet is arthro­pods. They will also eat small mam­mals, such as mice and ground squir­rels, and small birds, like spar­rows. They hunt re­source­fully and can also catch snakes, lizards, bats, and earth­worms. Bur­row­ing owls have adapt­able food habits be­cause of sea­sonal changes that are de­pen­dent on the pop­u­la­tion den­sity of other an­i­mals. Dur­ing the brood rear­ing sea­son, the fe­males have a habit of hunt­ing arthro­pods. Males can range up to 9.6 kilo­me­ters from the nest search­ing for food, but nor­mally stay within 1.6 kilo­me­ters to do most of the hunt­ing. While bur­row­ing owls eat small mam­mals and birds. De­pend­ing on the prey being pur­sued, their style of hunt­ing changes. In­sects are pur­sued on the ground and some­times are taken on the wing. When veg­e­ta­tion cover is vari­able, bur­row­ing owls hover when hunt­ing small mam­mals. (Haug, et al., 2014; Marsh, et al., 2014; Sarno, et al., 2012; Trulio and Hig­gins, 2012)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats terrestrial vertebrates
  • insectivore
  • eats non-insect arthropods
  • vermivore

• Animal Foods
• birds
• mammals
• amphibians
• reptiles
• insects
• terrestrial non-insect arthropods
• terrestrial worms

Pre­da­tion

Bur­row­ing owls are a prey choice for other birds of prey. Such preda­tors in­clude: pere­grine fal­cons (Falco per­gri­nus), prairie fal­cons (Falco mex­i­canus), red-tailed hawks (Buteo ja­maicen­sis), Swain­son’s hawks (Buteo swain­soni), broad-winged hawks (Buteo platypterus), Cooper’s hawks (Ac­cip­iter cooperii), bald ea­gles (Hali­aee­tus leu­co­cephalus), and golden ea­gles (Aquila chrysae­tos). Bur­row­ing owls have many other preda­tors such as foxes, coy­otes (Canis la­trans), do­mes­tic cats (Felis catus) and dogs (Canis lupus fa­mil­iaris), bad­gers (Taxidea taxus), Vir­ginia opos­sums (Didel­phis vir­gini­ana), bob­cat (Lynx rufus), cougar (Puma con­color), weasels, skunks and hu­mans (Homo sapi­ens). Hu­mans are preda­tory be­cause farm­ers fill in the bur­rows in their pas­tures. Rep­tiles also can take eggs from the nest. When at­tacked or forced to de­fend the nest, bur­row­ing owls can scream, cluck and chat­ter. Non-vo­cal­iza­tion meth­ods of com­mu­ni­ca­tion are bill snap­ping and a wing flap for dis­tress. ("Species as­sess­ment for West­ern bur­row­ing owl (Athene cu­nic­u­laria hy­pu­gaea)", 2004; Haug, et al., 2014; Man­ning and Kaler, 2011; Sarno, et al., 2012)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • Peregrine falcon (Falco pergrinus), prairie falcon (Falco colombarius), red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), broad-winged hawk (Buteo platypterus), Swainson’s hawk (Buteo swainsoni), Cooper’s hawk (Accipiter cooperii), bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), fox, coyote (Canis latrans), domestic cat (Felis catus), domestic dog (Canis lupus familiaris), badger (Taxidea taxus), Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), bobcat (Lynx rufus), cougar (Puma concolor), weasel, skunk, humans (Homo sapiens)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Bur­row­ing owls have an im­por­tant role in main­tain­ing a bal­ance in pop­u­la­tions of their prey, small mam­mals and in­sects, and also serve and prey them­selves. Some stud­ies sug­gest pop­u­la­tions are de­clin­ing which may cause a rip­ple ef­fect through their ecosys­tem. They host par­a­sites such as: lice (Colpocephalum pecti­na­tum), (St­rigiphilus speo­tyti), fleas (Echidnophaga gal­li­nacean), (Pulex ir­ri­tans), (Aetheca wag­neri), mites (Colpocephalum pecti­na­tum), and gape­worm (Cy­athos­toma amer­i­cana??). Ground squir­rels, desert tor­toises (Go­pherus agas­sizii), go­pher tor­toises (Go­pherus polyphe­mus), prairie dogs (Cyno­mys), have a mu­tu­al­is­tic re­la­tion­ship with bur­row­ing owls. ("Species as­sess­ment for West­ern bur­row­ing owl (Athene cu­nic­u­laria hy­pu­gaea)", 2004; Haug, et al., 2014; Marsh, et al., 2014)

• Ecosystem Impact
• creates habitat

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Bird­ing fes­ti­vals in late Feb­ru­ary cel­e­brate bur­row­ing owls and whoop­ing cranes (Grus amer­i­cana), bring­ing bird­ers form around the coun­try to watch these birds. This gen­er­ates an eco­nomic value to the com­mu­ni­ties that put on these fes­ti­vals. There are also on­line bur­row­ing owl cam­era web­sites to ob­serve them. Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife (http://​www.​ccfriendsofwildlife.​org/​burrowing%20owl/​) ded­i­cated to the pro­tec­tion, pre­ven­tion and ed­u­ca­tion of these owls puts out a map and en­gage­ment rules to view bur­row­ing owls in the county they re­sides

• Positive Impacts
• ecotourism

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse ef­fects of bur­row­ing owls on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Ac­cord­ing to the IUCN Red List, the bur­row­ing owl pop­u­la­tions are large and not vul­ner­a­ble, cur­rently listed as a species of Least Con­cern. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Ser­vice does not have the bur­row­ing owl listed under the En­dan­gered Species Act. The main threat to these owls is the loss of habi­tat due to en­croach­ment of hu­mans. Some stud­ies sug­gest pop­u­la­tions are de­clin­ing, which may cause a rip­ple ef­fect through their ecosys­tem. How­ever in some cases the en­croach­ment of hu­mans has de­for­ested areas and cre­ated pas­ture­land, which has in­creased the bur­row­ing owl’s range. ("Species as­sess­ment for West­ern bur­row­ing owl (Athene cu­nic­u­laria hy­pu­gaea)", 2004; Haug, et al., 2014; Marsh, et al., 2014)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Migratory Bird Act

  Protected

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

• State of Michigan List

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Shane Bran­des (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Karen Pow­ers (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity.

Ref­er­ences

2011. "BBL - Longevity Records of North Amer­i­can Birds" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 23, 2014 at http://​genomics.​senescence.​info/​species/​biblio.​php?​id=427.

USDI Bu­reau of Land Man­age­ment. Species as­sess­ment for West­ern bur­row­ing owl (Athene cu­nic­u­laria hy­pu­gaea). none. Cheyenne, Wyoming: USDI Bu­reau of Land Man­age­ment. 2004. Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 07, 2014 at http://​www.​blm.​gov/​pgdata/​etc/​medialib/​blm/​wy/​wildlife/​animal-assessmnts.​Par.​52462.​File.​dat/​WesternBurrowingOwl.​pdf.

Bar­clay, J., N. Ko­r­fanta, M. Kauff­man. 2011. Long-term pop­u­la­tion dy­nam­ics of a man­aged bur­row­ing owl colony. The Jour­nal of Wildlife Man­age­ment, 75: 1295-1306.

Brink­ley, E., C. Tufts. 2007. Na­tional Wildlife Fed­er­a­tion Field Guide to Birds of North Amer­ica. New York City: Ster­ling Pub­lish­ing Com­pany.

Con­way, M., C. Nadeau, C. Con­way. 2012. In­traspe­cific in re­pro­duc­tion traits of bur­row­ing owls. The Jounal Ethol­ogy, 30: 395-402.

Haug, E., B. Mill­sap, M. Martell. 2014. Bur­row­ing owl: Athene cu­nic­u­laria. The Birds of North Amer­ica On­line, 061: 1. Ac­cessed Sep­tem­ber 03, 2014 at http://​bna.​birds.​cornell.​edu/​bna/​species/​061/​articles/​introduction.

Haug, E., L. Oliphant. 1990. Move­ments, ac­tiv­ity pat­terns, and habi­tat use of Bur­row­ing Owls in Saskatchewan. Jour­nal of Wildlife Man­age­ment, 54: 27-35.

Lynch, W. 2007. Owls of the United States and Canada: A Com­plete Guide to Their Bi­ol­ogy and Be­hav­ior. Bal­ti­more, Mary­land: Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Machicote, M., L. Branch, D. Vil­lar­real. 2004. Bur­row­ing owls and bur­row­ing mam­mals: Are ecosys­tems en­gi­neers in­ter­change­able as Fa­cil­i­ta­tors?. Oikos, 106: 527-535.

Man­ning, J. 2011. Fac­tors af­fect­ing de­tec­tion prob­a­bil­ity of bur­row­ing owls in south­west agroe­cosys­tem en­vi­ron­ments. The Jour­nal of Wildlife Man­age­ment, 75: 1558-1567.

Man­ning, J., R. Kaler. 2011. Ef­fects of sur­vey meth­ods on bur­row­ing owl be­hav­iors. The Jour­nal of Wildlife Man­age­ment, 75: 525-530.

Marsh, A., T. Welli­come, E. Bayne. 2014. In­flu­ence of veg­e­ta­tion on the noc­tur­nal for­ag­ing be­hav­ior and ver­te­brate prey cap­ture by en­dan­gered bur­row­ing owls. Avian Con­ser­va­tion and Ecol­ogy, 9/1: 2 (9pp.).

Pe­ter­son, R. 1980. North Amer­i­can Birds. Boston: Houghton Mil­f­fin Com­pany.

Rosen­berg, D., K. Haley. 2004. The ecol­ogy of bur­row­ing owls in the agroe­cosys­tem of the Im­pe­r­ial Val­ley, Cal­i­for­nia. Stud­ies in Avian Bi­ol­ogy, 27: 120-135.

Sarno, R., P. Nixon, B. Mealey, R. Con­coby, R. Mrykalo, M. Gri­gione. 2012. Suit­abil­ity of translo­ca­tion sites for Florida bur­row­ing owls: Prey avail­abil­ity and diet. South­east­ern Nat­u­ral­ist, 11: 755-764.

Thiele, J., K. Bakker, C. Di­eter. 2013. Mul­ti­scale nest site se­lec­tion by bur­row­ing owls in west­ern South Dakota. The Wil­son Jour­nal of Or­nithol­ogy, 125: 763-774.

Trulio, L., P. Hig­gins. 2012. The diet of west­ern bur­row­ing owls in an urban land­scape. West­ern North Amer­i­can Nat­u­ral­ist, 73: 348-356.

Welty, J., J. Belthoff, J. Eg­bert, H. Schw­abl. 2012. Re­la­tion­ships be­tween yolk an­dro­gens and nest den­sity, lay­ing date, and lay­ing order in west­ern bur­row­ing owls (Athene cu­nic­u­laria hy­pugea). Cana­dian Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 90: 182-192.