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California Burrowing Owl Consortium

Conservation in California

Imperial Valley Nesting Area

Commensal with the round-tailed ground squirrel (Spermophilus tereticaudus), burrowing owls occur almost exclusively in irrigation canal banks.  An estimated 6,570 nesting pairs (71% of California’s population) remain. There are insufficient data to determine if this population has declined since the mid 1980s

Conservation challenges include protecting the agricultural niche and avoiding rampant habitat loss experienced in other California human population centers as economic development pressures shift to this region.