Burrowing Owl

About the Burrowing Owl
Burrowing Owl

The Burrowing Owl is a small species owl with long legs that can be found throughout parts of North and South America. They nest and roost in burrows in the ground, like those excavated by prairie dogs. They will also dig their own burrows.

Unlike most owls, you'll find Burrowing Owls active during the day. They tend to avoid the mid-day heat and still hunt mostly during dusk and dawn.

The range of the Burrowing Owl is very large, but habitat loss threatens the species. The conservation status is Least Concern as of April 2014, but the population trend is decreasing.

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Details & Statistics

Conservation

The Burrowing Owl is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.

International Names

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