A burrowing owl sits inside an entry tube of an artificial burrow. Jason Fidorra Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Pasco, WA In Washington, burrowing owls are rare. Their population has ...

With their comically big eyes, perpetually surprised expressions and long, spindly legs, the Florida burrowing owl is a pint-sized paradox, a bird of prey that prefers to live life underground.

The burrowing owl isn't your average owl: It doesn't live in trees, and it's not nocturnal. It makes its nest underground — usually in abandoned rodent burrows — and is active both day and night. But ...

Early accounts of the owl in California described it as one of the state's most common birds. In the late 1860s, according to one ornithologist, “burrowing owls stood on every little knoll” around San ...