California’s Burrowing Owls One Step Closer to State Protections

In response to a March 2024 petition by conservation groups, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has found that protecting the western burrowing owl under the California Endangered Species Act may be warranted.

“We urgently need legal protections to give these distinctive owls a fighting chance for survival, especially since the existing policy framework has failed to adequately safeguard this species for decades,” said Pamela Flick, California program director with Defenders of Wildlife.

The department is recommending that the state’s Fish and Game Commission accept the petition for further consideration. The commission is expected to vote on whether to advance the burrowing owl to “candidate” status at its Oct. 10 meeting. If the burrowing owl becomes a candidate species, the department would have 12 to 18 months to conduct a full status review before the commission votes on an endangered or threatened designation.

“The commission should advance these state protections so California’s adorable burrowing owls can continue to grace grasslands and open spaces,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “I’ve witnessed these owls disappearing from much of the state over the past two decades, and it pains me to watch their homes be bulldozed for irresponsible sprawl development.”

"We are relieved that the burrowing owl is now recommended as a potential candidate for special status listing, but it breaks our hearts that we had to reach this critical point,” said Shani Kleinhaus with Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society. “We hope the commission designates the Bay Area population as endangered to help these owls recover, since they bring such joy to residents of Santa Clara Valley.”

“In mere decades, California has seen the decimation of formerly thriving populations of burrowing owls, once one of the more common birds in California,” said Scott Artis with Urban Bird Foundation.

The conservation groups Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Burrowing Owl Preservation Society, Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, Urban Bird Foundation, Central Valley Bird Club and San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society are seeking endangered status for imperiled populations of burrowing owls in southwestern California, central-western California and the San Francisco Bay Area; and threatened status for burrowing owls in the Central Valley and southern desert range.

The only owl species that nests and roosts underground, the burrowing owl was formerly widespread in California and commonly nested in grasslands throughout low elevation areas of the state.

Burrowing owls have suffered significant habitat loss due to exurban sprawl, conversion of grasslands to agricultural lands, development of large-scale wind and solar energy infrastructure and the persecution of ground-dwelling squirrels and other mammals whose underground burrows the owls use for nesting and roosting. The owls are also killed by rodenticides and collisions with wind turbines and cars.

Protecting the burrowing owl under the state Endangered Species Act would require state and local agencies to manage threats. That would include ending the state policy of allowing owls to be excluded or removed from lands slated for development. It could also require more robust mitigation for habitat loss.

Background

Burrowing owls have been eliminated as a breeding species from almost all of the California coast and are rapidly nearing localized extinction in the Bay Area, where fewer than 25 breeding pairs remain. Only about 225 breeding pairs are left in central-western and southwestern California. Burrowing owl numbers are also declining in the Central Valley, which has fewer than 1,500 breeding pairs, mostly in the southern Central Valley.

The state’s strongholds for the species are the Imperial Valley, which has an estimated 4,000 breeding pairs, and the southern Central Valley with around 1,000 pairs. A formerly large population in the Altamont Pass area in eastern Alameda and Contra Costa counties is down to a few hundred pairs and declining rapidly.

Burrowing owls have been eliminated as a breeding species from at least 19 of the 51 California counties where they formerly occurred and are close to being wiped out in 10 other counties.

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The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 1.7 million members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

Defenders of Wildlife is dedicated to the protection of all native animals and plants in their natural communities, with a nationwide network of nearly 2.2 million members and activists.

Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society promotes the enjoyment, understanding, and protection of birds and other wildlife by engaging people of all ages in birding, education, and conservation.

Burrowing Owl Preservation Society works to increase California’s burrowing owl population through education and research and protection and enhancement of grassland habitat.

Urban Bird Foundation, founded in 2008 as the Burrowing Owl Conservation Network, tackles pressing conservation issues affecting burrowing owl and other bird populations in and surrounding neighborhoods, cities, and open spaces across the United States.

Central Valley Bird Club is dedicated to the study of the distribution, status, ecology, and conservation of birds in the Central Valley of California.

San Bernardino Valley Audubon Society strives to connect people to the natural world, focusing on birds and other wildlife to conserve natural resources in Southern California's Inland Empire in San Bernardino, Riverside, and Imperial Counties.