Burrowing Owl

Burrowing Owls have everything to attract us. Their European and Indian cousins just have more poetic names: the Athene's Owl and the Indian God Brahma's Owl. Our owl measures from 20 to 25 cm, has a round head with two white facial disks that encircle two very large black eyes framed by yellow. The beak is light grey, sometimes slightly yellowish, with grey wax. Under the facial disks, a black collar separates the throat from the chest as it ascends up to the eyes. The eyebrows are white and very marked, the brown forehead striped with white points and lines. The main color of this strigidae is a variable grayish brown, largely spotted with white, depending on individuals and subspecies (19 !). All the wing coverts, the remiges, will therefore present a mottled white, as well as the back and the cloak. The short brown rectrices are horizontally striped, the bird showing little of its tail. The throat is white, while the chest is gray-brown, always with the presence of characteristic white spots, the belly is also white striped with horizontal brown marks. The legs are long, the Burrowing Owl stands on its legs high, the tarsi are slightly feathered.
The female is slightly larger and more striped on the belly than the male which has lighter brown coloration, difficult to distinguish from its partner. The young are less marked and spotted with white on the back, the belly is whitish and does not show horizontal brown stripes.
The Burrowing Owl has a territory so wide that size and coloration can vary according to subspecies; North American individuals are generally larger than their subtropical cousins.