An alert Burrowing Owl, Athene cunicularia, stands on a post, guarding its burrow underneath. The post has been put there to protect the nest burrow, which was in a new housing development in Cape Coral, Florida, USA.
This is another historic image from the early 1990s, derived from a 35mm slide original.
Burrowing Owls are small, diurnal owls with long legs. They are in the same family as the Little Owls of much of the Palearctic and North Africa. In Western US, they nest in Prairie Dog burrows, but in Florida, they dig their own burrows. The male guards them during most of the day while the female tends to the eggs, then the chicks, underground.
Cape Coral is still ‘the’ place to go to see the Florida subspecies floridana of Burrowing Owls, having around 1000 breeding pairs.
This image is copyright © Liz Leyden, all rights reserved.
It is for sale as wall art or as various home or personal accessories at Pixels.com.
My original Burrowing Owl photo is available to license as a stock photo from iStock.
