Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia)

Other Scientific Names
Speotyto cunicularia [Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993)], Speotyto cunicularia [Stotz et al. (1996)]

Family
Strigidae (Typical Owls)

Size
18 - 26 cm

First Described (Guide)
(Molina, 1782)

Habitat
Temperate grassland. From sea-level - 4,000 m.

Range (Guide)

Antigua And Barbuda (E), Argentina, Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada (B), Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guadeloupe (E), Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St Kitts And Nevis (E), Suriname (B), Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay (B), USA (B), Venezuela.

Vagrant to Falkland Islands (Malvinas), South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.

Population
Estimated population is 2,000,000 (2010).

Status LC
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Voice
Xeno-Canto Sound Files (more (100)...)

Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) [XC54179]
by Jeremy Minns from El Relincho, Ecilda Paulier, San Jose, Uruguay (song)

Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) [XC286619]
by Fernando Igor de Godoy from Salton Sea area, Lack and Lindsey Road area, Calipatria, Imperial County, California, United States (call)

Subspecies
Some of the subspecies described could reflect merely individual variation or intergrading populations, and thus probably not acceptable. Subspecific taxa and delimitations require critical re-evaluation with modern systematic methods, although some certainly appear distinct. Lesser Antilles subspecies amaura and guadeloupensis extinct.

The following 22 subspecies are recognised:

hypugaea (Bonaparte, 1825) - From southern Canada, west of eastern edge of Great Plains, south to El Salvador.
rostrata (Townsend, CH, 1890) - Clarión I in Revillagigedo Is (off western Mexico).
floridana (Ridgway, 1874) - Florida (also, marginally, Georgia) and Bahamas. Also (possibly this subspecies) Cuba and I of Pines.
troglodytes (Wetmore & Swales, 1931) - Hispaniola, including Gonâve I and Beata I.
arubensis (Cory, 1915) - Aruba (Netherlands Antilles).
brachyptera (Richmond, 1896) - Margarita I, off northern Venezuela.
apurensis (Gilliard, 1940) - North-central Venezuela.
minor (Cory, 1918) - Southern Guyana and extreme northern Brazil (Roraima).
carrikeri (Stone, 1922) - Eastern Colombia.
tolimae (Stone, 1899) - Western Colombia.
pichinchae (von Boetticher, 1929) - Western Ecuador.
punensis (Chapman, 1914) - South-western Ecuador, north-western Peru.
intermedia (Cory, 1915) - Western Peru.
nanodes (von Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1892) - South-western Peru.
juninensis (von Berlepsch & Stolzmann, 1902) - Central Peru to western Bolivia and north-western Argentina.
boliviana (Kelso, L, 1939) - Bolivia.
grallaria (Temminck, 1822) - Central and eastern Brazil.
partridgei Olrog, 1976 - North-eastern Argentina (Corrientes).
cunicularia (Molina, 1782) - Southern Bolivia and southern Brazil south to Tierra del Fuego.
amaura ! (Lawrence, 1878) - Antigua, Nevis (Lesser Antilles). Extinct.
guadeloupensis ! (Ridgway, 1874) - Guadeloupe (Lesser Antilles). Extinct.
guantanamensis (Garrido, 2001) - Coastal northern Cuba (Guant�namo Province).

References
See References.

Files:

JPG files for Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia) - 10 files

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