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Aspects of Colombia (#9 in teaser series: an atypical owl)

 

This petite owl is mostly-terrestrial; it can fly, but rarely does so.

It is diurnal, not nocturnal.

Its “home sweet home” is not  high up in a tree, cave, cliff-face or barn.

Burrowing owls dwell underground.

Their common name, however, is misleading; so-called “burrowing” owls prefer to take advantage of actually-burrowing animals.

They move into those other animals’ “abandoned” burrows.

I suspect that some owner-excavators’ “abandonment” of their homes would have been lethally “assisted” by members of the pictured species, Athene cunicularia.

As you can see, some burrowing owls are remarkably untroubled by the obvious presence of nearby humans.

Eventually, a multi-image post will show & tell more about burrowing owls; a quirky sequence of 3 photos will then answer a question that you have probably never asked!

As is true of the previous several posts – & of the next few – this “wildlife experience” happened in lowland, mostly-cleared, “cattle country” near Villavicencio, circa 100 ks southeast of Bogotá,

 

Published in Americas and Eurasia and Africa nature and travel photographs

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