||Name: Burrowing owl| |Scientific name: Athene cunicularia|
|Range:All of North and Central America| |Habitat: grasslands
and deserts| |Status: Not threatened| |Diet in the wild:
rodents, insects and small birds| |Diet in the zoo: mice|
|Location in the zoo: Texas Wild! In the panhandle section.|
These owls have white eyebrows yellow eyes and long legs.They
lack the eartufts common to most owls.They are sandy colored
with with white to cream barring on their chest. Burrowing Owls
can build their own homes,but they prefer to live in old prairie
dog holes. Often many owls live togather in a social group. They
are active both day and night and can often be seen standing
guard outside their burrows. |Special anatomical, physiological
or behavioral adaptations: Burrowing owls fly with irregular
wing beats.They hover during hunting and courtship,and may flap
their wings asynchronously (not up and down together). Juveniles
can give a rattlesnake like buzz when threatened. This fools
preadators into thinking that th