WILDLIFE WEDNESDAY: Boo!
Our Western Burrowing Owl—a mighty little predator with big woes

It’s that spooky season: The wind is up. Gusts rattle at the vents and loose windows. Dust devils swirl. And the little burrowing owls—with their OMG I THOUGHT THAT WAS DECAF WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WAS A RED-EYE look—hunker in their burrows.
Maybe you’ve seen Western Burrowing Owls here in the Morongo Basin, but I haven’t.1 I have seen these owls at Badlands National Park occupying prairie dog colonies. I was lucky enough to be at a pullout in the Badlands when a carful of adults and kids pulled up. When the family spotted the long-legged owls and tubby prairie dogs, I was treated to the squee heard around the world. So cute!
Burrowing owls range from Alberta and Saskatchewan in Canada all the way to the tip of South America. In our desert’s loose, sandy soil, the owls can dig but prefer to take over ground squirrel and rodent holes, coyote and fox dens, and even desert tortoise burrows. Here, a burrowing owl at an English hawk conservancy shows how it’s done:
In agricultural areas they might line the mouth of their burrows with cow dung (at Badlands, it was bison poop). The feces may attract insects the owls feed on—or maybe the owls just like the way it smells. Burrowing owls eat insects, lizards, scorpions, and mice, and some are even reported to eat prickly pear and cholla fruit.

A few local burrowing owls have been reported on iNaturalist, and there are records of them in the Pinto Basin in Joshua Tree National Park. People who live in Harmony Acres say they’ve seen them in the Sugarbowl, and they’ve been reported in Wonder Valley. Just this year, the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center published an Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan that includes a recent survey of Western Burrowing Owls on base.
In 2007, wildlife surveyors for the Marines counted 25 burrowing owl territories. In 2022, they only found two territories.
That doesn’t sound like good news, does it? What happened? The report suggests that two bad drought years before the 2022 survey might have been to blame. Like the Mojave desert tortoise, the owls have also suffered significant habitat loss. For owls, the change of grasslands into farms, large wind and solar projects, and the use of rodenticides as well as accidents with wind turbines and cars have all reduced their populations.
Sadly, burrowing owl numbers are falling everywhere in California, and just three weeks ago, the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) declared the the owl a candidate for listing as a threatened or endangered species. A full status review might take up to two years.
Meanwhile, around 9,500 nesting pairs of owls live in California, three-quarters of them in the furrows, berms, and roadsides of farms in the Imperial Valley. The Center for Biological Diversity, which led the petition to the CDFW, hopes that listing the owl will give it protection. “I’m thrilled they’re safeguarded for now,” said conservation advocate Jeff Miller, “and look forward to these adorable little owls getting permanent protection.”
How can you help burrowing owls?
Always observe owls from a respectful distance.
Do not use pesticides or rodenticides near owl nests.
Keep dogs on leashes and cats indoors; they may kill owls and chicks.
Support land use standards, natural open space planning, habitat stewardship, and habitat enhancement projects that benefit burrowing owls.
Report any birds found nesting or near construction sites to the CDFW.
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