Home > Predatory Birds > Burrowing Owls > Conservation

California Burrowing Owl Consortium

Conservation Issues:

• California supports a large segment of the continental burrowing owl population. By virtue of the range of latitudes that California spans, it supports all migratory categories of burrowing owls, including year-round residents, breeders, and complete annual and partial migrants.
• Anthropogenic stressors and causes of population decline in California are similar to other regions; it is the extent of population declines and California’s relative importance to the western burrowing owl that are problematic and worthy of increased conservation efforts.
• Burrowing owls are protected by California Fish and Game Code and by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Individual owls and their active nests are afforded considerable protection. However, as obligate burrow nesters that do not excavate their own burrows, burrowing owls are entirely dependent upon fossorial mammals which have no legal status or protection, and are commonly and purposefully eradicated by humans when discing for fire control.
• Mitigation to avoid take of nesting individuals by conducting pre-construction surveys has been an intensive practice required by permitting authorities in local jurisdictions, and has probably succeeded in minimizing incidental take. Mitigation to replace nesting habitats lost in the course of economic development, and thus to offset this impact, has been inadequate to prevent population declines caused by habitat conversion.
• Although California has a significant burrowing owl population, development pressures and recent owl population trends suggest that the species will disappear from significant portions of its range in California during the next 10 years. Processes and experiences in California may be illustrative of what may be expected elsewhere in the range of the western burrowing owl.