Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Seeing as owls are Honorary Cats™, I think it’s worthwhile to call attention to a book published last month by Yale University Press: Enigma of the Owl, by Mike Unwin, with photographs by David Tipling. I’ve not seen a copy yet, but the publisher’s website says it’s “lavishly illustrated”, and an article in the New York Times bears witness to that, being accompanied by a small sample of wonderful photos. I was immediately drawn to the photo of the burrowing owl with a frog dangling from its beak, which on closer inspection appears to be half a frog (the other half may have already been swallowed). But I chose to show the following, because it brings out the owl’s cat-like nature.
A small owl in a big cactus. From NY Times, Rick & Nora Bowers/Alamy, via Yale University Press
By special request I obtained photos of a population of burrowing owls in Florida featured last fall here at WEIT. They are now breeding. (See update below.)
Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia) in Cape Coral, FL, April 20, 2012.
One parent is on the mound, and three chicks are visible. Here, the other parent is visible.
Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia) in Cape Coral, FL, April 20, 2012.
There are five chicks altogether. Here’s the report I received on them:
It’s so cool to see how the parents act. They are always positioned the same way, one at the entrance of the burrow watching the chicks and the other hidden behind a tuft of grass a little bit in front of the burrow, standing guard. They’re getting big so fast.
These are not necessarily the same owls pictured in the previous post, but it’s the same population. In the U.S., as discussed in the previous post on them, burrowing owls are mostly western in distribution, with an isolated segment in peninsular Florida. There are also scattered populations in the West Indies.
UPDATE, May 4, 2012. I’ve just received the following note on the baby owls’ development from my correspondent:
The babies are now indistinguishable from the adults in looks, but they still haven’t left the nest. You can tell which ones are the parents by their behavior- mom or dad is usually shooing the babies into their burrow when we walk by.
Burrowing Owls (Athene cunicularia) in Cape Coral, FL, November 18, 2011, by Gary Wood.
Burrowing owls nest in burrows in grasslands, and, unlike most owls, are active during the day. These two habits combine to make them excellent photographic subjects. James Bond (yes, theBond, James Bond) wrote of them
When alarmed they have an amusing habit of bobbing up and down, during which performance they gaze intently at the intruder.
Burrowing owls are widely distributed in the western US and unforested parts of South America (e.g., the llanos and pampas). In the eastern US they are limited to Florida, and there are scattered populations in the West Indies. A number of West Indian populations have become extinct, some very recently and likely due to post-Columbian human activity, but others are known only from late Pleistocene fossils. The spotty distribution of the bird in the West Indies is evidently relictual due to post-Pleistocene loss of dry, grassland habitats, which would also leave them more vulnerable to human disturbance (e.g. introduced mongoose).
From Pregill and Olson (1981).
Reader Ben Goren has sent me the following lovely portrait of a burrowing owl at the Phoenix Zoo.
Bond, J. 1936. Birds of the West Indies. Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.
Bond, J. 1950. Check-List of Birds of the West Indies. 3rd ed. Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia.
Pregill, G.K. and S.L . Olson. 1981. Zoogeography of West Indian vertebrates in relation to Pleistocene climatic cycles. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 12:75-98. pdf
