For the Birds: The Burrowing Owls of SW Florida

For the Birds: The Burrowing Owls of SW Florida

Burrowing Owls SW Florida

Burrowing Owls are cute, pint-sized owls with rather long legs for their size. Some 2500 happily make their home in suburban Cape Coral, Florida. Home is a burrow some four to eight feet long that they dig themselves or borrow from an armadillo or gopher tortoise in open grassy areas. They eat primarily larger insects such as grasshoppers and beetles but won’t pass up the occasional lizard, small snake, bird, or rodent. They are active days and night. During the day they are usually seen standing at their burrow entrance or on a nearby perch.

Burrowing Owls SW Florida

Burrowing Owls SW Florida

The owls live as single breeding pairs or in small colonies. Nesting season usually starts in March though can continue well into summer. During breeding season their burrow entrances are often adorned with paper, plastic, shells, glass, tufts of grass, or animal parts.

Burrowing Owls SW Florida

Burrowing Owls SW Florida

In Florida, the burrowing owl is classified as threatened. This sometimes causes problems. Homeowners are required to share their yard if a pair of these cute little owls decides to move in.

Burrowing Owls SW Florida

Burrowing Owls SW Florida

The images were made with an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II with an Olympus 300mm f/4 lens and processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

Ron Mayhew

Fine Art Photographer specializing in Still Life and Commercial Photography.

This Post Has 8 Comments

  1. These owl photos are very well captured! Thank you so much for sharing the joy of the beautiful bird. :)

    1. Thank you so much and thanks for sharing them.

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