Friday, August 04, 2006

BURROWING OWL

Burrowing Owl (Coruja Buraqueira) is my submission for today's Photo Friday theme Private.





Photo by Carlos Alckmin Mascaro


I wrote about Burrowing Owl (Coruja Buraqueira) Athene cunicularia (aka Speotyto cunicularia ) here and here, where you can see anothers photos. My husband took these pictures near our house. A couple of beautiful owls just stared at him straight from the top of the kiosk.

I summarize some interesting information about Owls. "The Owl is any of some 200+ species of solitary, mainly nocturnal birds of prey in the order Strigiformes. Owls mostly hunt small mammals, insects, and other birds, though a few species specialize in hunting fish. They are found on all the Earth's lands except for Antarctica, most of Greenland, and some remote islands."


Owls are far-sighted, and are unable to clearly see anything within a few inches of their eyes. Their far vision, particularly in low light, is incredibly good. Many owls can also hunt by sound in total darkness. Different species of owls make different sounds, and a variety of other barking calls and screams. One of which is the recognizable "hoo-hoo” Look on this site, search to find Athene cunicularia Burrowing Owl and click to hear his “hoo-hoo”.


"The Burrowing Owl is an owl of dry, open habitats such as “cerrado” and savannah while it is often found in cities, golf courses and other similar areas. It nests in the ground usually in a burrow excavated by another animal such as a skunk or armadillo."

"Most owls are nocturnal, but several, including the pygmy owls (Glaucidium), are crepuscular, or twilight active, hunting mainly at dawn and dusk. A few owls, such as the Burrowing Owl (Speotyto cunicularia) and the Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus), are also active during the day.


27 comments:

  1. Linda página!

    Seu trabalho é muito importante.
    Parabéns pela maneira suave com que consegue veicular tanta informação de qualidade.

    O site do Arthur Grosset é uma excelente fonte de referância de nossas aves. Além de lindas fotos!

    [s]

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  2. I do like the photo of the two owls sitting side by side in daylight. Quite remarkable.

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  3. I remember when you wrote about these Owls before...I recall those photographs that your husband took and remember being so impressed with them...And now here are more! Hooray! I love Owls and that 'Hoo Hoo' sound they make!

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  4. Sonia,
    What a fascinating woman you are! The owl post was wonderful but I enjoyed the tour of your fabulous home (loved the old woodstove!) and wedding pictures too. I'd love to read your book on elderhood. Can I get an English edition? Sorry I'm so uneducated!
    Oh, and thanks for the link to your beautiful tree photos!
    Have a wonderful weekend.

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  5. Bonito! Gogeous!
    I love Owls because of their softness and "all seeing" eyes.
    Thank you for the photos.

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  6. Wonderful post!
    And the photos are spectacular.

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  7. ¡Sonia querido, realmente gocé el leer sobre sus buhos! Los tenemos puerta siguiente que vive a nosotros, pero son la variedad blanca. ¡Estoy intentando fijar esto en español para usted, así que déjeme saben si trabaja!

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  8. WOW! Sonia, this is so cool -- great photos and interesting info. I didn't realize owls were so prevalent everywhere! Thanks for sharing this and for those great photos (they look so sweet together)!

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  9. I love owls, they have such a penetrating and surprised look, as if they just saw something wonderful or awful ! I just discovered your blog. I have three blogs, one about my travels and two about cats. I like to comment with a lot of pictures.
    Over here (in Belgium/Europe) we don't have many owls, you can only see them in a zoo. So you are really lucky !

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  10. Hi, that's very interesting. I have never seen an owl at daylight, only in an animal-park.

    Sigrun

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  11. S, thankyou for these lovely images. We have an owl here in OZ called a Toad Mouth Owl. A strange looking bird with a distinctive call.
    Your info and link have provided me with some enlightening reading.
    Great Post.

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  12. I always love reading your blog. So much information.

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  13. As usual...so interesting. Lovely photos.

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  14. Hi ! Sonia, happy to come back in your marvelous world !
    Thanks for your marvellous pictures, so nice your parents' wedding. I was very busy, all this time ......

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  15. Owls are certainly wonderful creatures and we once had a pure white owl here in our yard many years ago...it's a shame I didn't have a camera handy at the time!

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  16. The photo of those two on top of the kiosk is amazing, Sonia!

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  17. Wonderful pictures and info Sonia!! Owls are so neat. I never see any though. I thought they only came out at night.

    Loved the post below too. Such a lovely picture of your parents wedding.

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  18. I thought the same thing Rachel, but I guess we're both wrong. There's another owl posted in daylight over at Pure Florida's site too. On second thought I remember seeing a solid white owl in the morning at daylight on my way to work once, year ago. Love the photos Sonia.

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  19. You have a beautiful blog Sonia. Thank You for sharing all your stories and photos. I've enjoyed browsing through.

    Love the photos of the owls! How wonderful that they were out during the day. :)

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  20. Owls are simply magnificent creatures. How lucky you were that those two were waiting to be photographed. Thank you so much for your beautiful post.
    Hope you are well, and having a great week so far.
    Take care, Meow

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  21. Wonderful photos of the burrowing owls - we had them just across the road from our home when we lived in Texas - they are such a delight to watch.

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  22. One of my favorite birds! So far I've still never seen them in real life - only in pictures or on tv.

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  23. I've always liked owls. My mom used to be a part of a group called Animal Rescue, she would take wounded birds into our home until they they healed, we had lots of owls.

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  24. Your post got me thinking about the sounds we heard when we were staying up in the country on the weekend. I'm sure it was an owl, but it almost sounded human. I went to that fantastic web site you provided which has audio files, and although no Australian owl listed sounded like what we heard, I had a wonderful time listening to all the different calls. They are such lovely birds. Thanks for this post!

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  25. Thank you for your comment! I love owls. In fact, my last piece was a screech owl entitled The Messenger.

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  26. Such lovely creatures and what a couple of great shots. We only occasionally see owls around here. Once we saw a snowy owl...gorgeous!

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  27. Sonia I clicked to enlarge photos and that first picture.. those darling little faces. Very interesting about them hunting at dawn and dusk. I don't know why but I assumed they hunted at night! When we were living in El Paso, Texas we found a family of small owls that were living in a hollowed out some kind of desert vegetation. They were tiny and darling. I rode my horse by them almost every day! Great info Sonia!

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