Burrowing Owl

Athene cunicularia
STANFORD LOCATIONS:

Reports in some years, including 2013, of individuals visiting the Dish Area. None seem to stay long.
  
Nest
Location
Nest
Type
Eggs
Mating System
Dev.
Parental Care
Primary &
2ndary Diet
Foraging
Strategy
F-M?
I: 21-28 DAYS
SEMIALTRICIAL 2
M-F
7-9
(6-11)
MONOG
F: 28 DAYS
MF
RODENTS
LIZARDS
 BIRDS
HOVER &
POUNCE
 GROUND
GLEAN
BREEDING: Grassland, prairie, savanna, open areas near human habitation, esp golf courses, airports. 1 brood.
DISPLAYS: Courtship: ritual feeding; pair choose nest site, stand atop burrow, quietly call, neck, and bill, also stretch legs and wings.
NEST: In mammal burrow, occ enlarged by kicking dirt backward. Nest chamber lined with cow chips, horse dung, food debris, dry grass, weeds, pellets, feathers. Occ unlined. Perennial.
EGGS: White, nest-stained. 1.2" (31 mm).
DIET: Hunts anytime, day or night; perches on burrow or fence post in day. Occ hawks insects.
CONSERVATION: Winters s to Guatemala and El Salvador. Blue List 1972-81, Special Concern 1982, 1986; isolated FL population seriously declining; also declining on Pacific coast. Poisoning and nest site loss result from human efforts to control squirrels and prairie dogs.
NOTES: Usu nest in small colonies within ground squirrel and prairie dog colonies. Pair bond usu > 1 year. Female remains inside burrow during most of egg laying and incubation, fed by male through brooding; begins foraging for self and young when they are 3-4 weeks old. Burrow often swarming with fleas; new burrow often chosen 2-4 weeks after young emerge. Families remain together into Sept. When disturbed in burrow, mimics rattlesnake's rattle. Often placed in genus Speotyto
ESSAYS: Blue List; Vocal Copying; Nest Sanitation.
REFERENCES: Marti, 1974; Martin, 1973; Rich, 1986; Thomsen, 1971.

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Except for Stanford Locations, the material in this species treatment is taken, with permission, from The Birder's Handbook (Paul Ehrlich, David Dobkin, & Darryl Wheye, Simon & Schuster, NY. 1988).