Regional: Western Burrowing Owls Move Closer To Possible Legal Protection As Numbers Dwindle In State

Bay City News

As populations of western burrowing owls decline in the state, the California Fish and Game Commission voted Thursday to consider placing the species on the endangered list.

According to the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity, burrowing owls have been eliminated as a breeding species from "almost all" of the California coast and are "rapidly" facing localized extinction in the Bay Area, where less than 25 breeding pairs remain.

The birds are a bit of an anomaly in the owl universe, preferring to be out and about during the day, and instead of soaring up into the rafters of a barn or a tree, these birds burrow down into the earth.

They even tend to move into burrows created by other creatures such as gophers or burrowing squirrels, though when pressed, they can do their own excavating, according to Audubon California. They also can make sounds that mimic rattlesnakes, all the better to keep unwanted visitors away from their holes in the ground.

Western burrowing owls are small -- about the size of a robin -- with big yellow eyes and no visible ears. In California, they have four primary nesting zones, one of which is the Bay Area. Seventy percent of the birds live in the Imperial Valley region in Southern California, according to the Audubon Society.

The Fish and Game Commission voted to protect the birds temporarily under the California Endangered Species Act while the Department of Fish and Wildlife conducts a full status review, which the department said could last between 12 and 18 months. The commission would then vote on whether to protect them permanently under state law.

"Burrowing owls have dwindled and vanished at an alarming rate around the state as their homes are bulldozed for irresponsible sprawl development," said Jeff Miller, senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit that advocates for species protections. "I'm thrilled they're safeguarded for now and look forward these adorable little owls getting permanent protection."

According to Pamela Flick with Defenders of Wildlife, a national conservation nonprofit, burrowing owls are no longer found in one-third of their former territories in the state.

Defenders of Wildlife joined with the Center for Biological Diversity, the Burrowing Owl Preservation Society, the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance, the Urban Bird Foundation, the Central Valley Bird Club and the San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society in March to file a petition with the commission seeking endangered or threatened status for the birds.

In addition to the threat of bulldozers, burrowing owls face threats from the conversion of grasslands into farmland, large-scale wind and solar energy infrastructure developments, and the killing of other "pests" that burrow underground.

Legally protecting these birds would mean ending a law that allows the owls to be removed from land that is slated to be developed and mitigating habitat loss, the Center for Biological Diversity said.

Copyright © 2024 Bay City News, Inc. All rights reserved. Republication, rebroadcast or redistribution without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. Bay City News is a 24/7 news service covering the greater Bay Area.