Burrowing Owls
Scientific name: Athene cunicularia 
Family name:  Strigadae
Are they endangered?  No, they are not threatened worldwide.  [IUCN Redlist: Least concern] They are threatened in Saskatchewan, Canada.
What are their past/present problems?  Burrowing Owls die if their prey is poisoned by farmers who want prairie dogs and ground squirrels to leave their farmland.  Since people are expanding where they live and building shopping centers this bird is losing its habitat.
What do they look like?  The body and belly of this owl are brown with white spots.  Their eyes are a bright yellow and their beaks are beige.
How big are they?  Burrowing Owls are about 9 inches long.  If their wings were spread out, they would be about 2 feet wide.
How many eggs do they lay?  The females lay from 1-12 white eggs once or twice a year.  The eggs take about a month to hatch.

How long do the fledglings stay in the nest?  Burrowing Owls live underground.  They like to live in prairie dog or turtle holes.  They make the nest with cow manure, owl pellets, and other disgusting things.  They also use grass, feathers, and weeds.  The babies [owlets] stay in the nest for about a month.
When do they hunt?  They hunt mostly during the day, but sometimes at night.
What do they eat?  They like to eat small rodents [MICE!], insects, prairie dogs, and ground squirrels.
Where do they live?  The live in Canada, the United States, Central and South America, and the Caribbean Islands.
What kind of place do they like to live in?  They like to live on prairies where they find prairie dogs to eat.  They like grasslands, and open flat areas, too.  If they live near people, you might find them on farm fields and golf courses.
Interesting facts:
If you bother a Burrowing Owl, it will make a rattling sound like a rattlesnake.
Burrowing Owls perch on low places like rocks, mounds of dirt, telephone poles, and fences while they look for prey.
Even though these birds aren’t threatened worldwide, there are some places around the world where they are endangered.  [Canada is an example.]
Sometimes Burrowing Owls live on airfields.
When an enemy gets close to them, they bob up and down while standing in one place.

Works Cited:

Alsop, Fred.  Birds of North America.  New York:  DK Publishing, 2001.

Burrowing owl.  Encyclopedia of Animals.  2006 ed.

Burrowing owl.  4 Oct. 2007.  <http://www.peregrinefund.org/Explore_Raptors/owls/burrwowl.html>.

Owl Distribution.  12 Oct. 2007.  <http://www.sboic.ca/problems.php>.

Schmoker, Bill.  “Re: Owl pictures (etc.).”   [American Kestrel flying]   E-mail to Club Web.  2 Nov. 2007. 

Vanner, Michael.  Field guide to the birds of North America.  United Kingdom:  Parragon, 2006.