Burrowing Owl Protection

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The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the four primary Burrowing Owl nesting areas in California. The Santa Clara Valley 2006 Burrowing Owl census revealed that local owls are now almost completely restricted to bayside parks, airports, and the edges of golf courses. Primary causes of population declines are human conversions and discing of habitats and eradication of burrow-generating mammals. Burrowing Owl habitat is destroyed by "Clearcutting the Valley" and leaving behind pavement instead of stumps.

In 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service nominated the Western Burrowing Owl as a Federal Category 2 candidate for listing as endangered or threatened, and in 1979 the U.S. Department of Fish and Game listed the owl as a Species of Special Concern. Unfortunately, these designations do not give the owl or its habitat any special protection.

In 2003, SCVAS joined with the Center for Biological Diversity and other conservationists to petition the California Fish and Game Commission to list the owl as endangered. The Commission rejected the petition, citing lack of evidence that the owl is "threatened with extinction over a significant portion of its range".

In 2006 and 2007, SCVAS and the Center for Biological Diversity sponsored a statewide census to document the current distribution and population of the owl.

Continuing Efforts

• Burrowing Owl Campaign in Mountain View promotes the preservation and enhancement of Burrowing Owls and their habitat at Shoreline Park (February 2010).
• Burrowing Owl Monitoring of the San Jose Municipal Code that restricts any discing, plowing, or breaking soil on any property greater than two acres (February 2010).
• Our Environmental Action Committee (EAC) collaborates with the California Burrowing Owl Consortium and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to preserve habitat and lobby to designate the bird as an endangered or threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act.

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Conservation Facts

The Burrowing Owl is the only owl that routinely lives and nests underground. These owls rarely dig their own burrows, however, instead they utilize burrows dug by ground squirrels, prairie dogs, badgers, or other burrowing species. Locally, they are usually found where Beechy Ground Squirrels live.

The Burrowing Owl's burrow fidelity is a widely recognized trait, with owls regularly reusing burrows from one year to the next. For this reason, the state-approved practice of relocation of owls from development sites has accelerated the elimination of the birds from rapidly urbanizing areas such as Santa Clara County. The burrowing owl has been eliminated as a breeding bird from five California counties and is now very rare in six others. Statewide, breeding groups of owls declined nearly 60% from the 1980s to the early 1990s.

An estimated 91% of all Burrowing Owls remaining in California occur on private land, most of it under enormous development pressure. Such open flatland grassy habitat is rarely purchased by agencies for public lands, and when it is these lands are rarely managed for Burrowing Owls, such as insuring that nesting sites be mowed between April and July when the owls are breeding, that predators such as dogs and cats be eliminated.

The Santa Clara Valley 2006 Burrowing Owl census revealed that local owls are now almost completely restricted to bayside parks, airports, and the edges of golf courses. Furthermore, not all such sites contain them. Mountain View Shoreline Park and the San Jose Airport host stable populations of the owls because they have managers who maintain the short grass habitat they require. The other bayside parks and airports have fewer or no owls even though the species historically lived at these sites.

How You can Help

SCVAS organized the Burrowing Owl Advocates to try to help enhance Burrowing Owl populations. Contact Dave Cook of the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society Envionmental Action Committee (EAC) to help this group protect the land, monitor the owls, and educate the public about the owls.

Join our Conservation Action Alert Network, by simply filling out this online form.

Last modified in February 2010.