Once a widely distributed and relatively common grassland bird,
the burrowing owl has been eliminated as a breeding bird from five
California counties and is now very rare in six others.
Once a widely distributed and relatively common grassland bird, the burrowing owl has been eliminated as a breeding bird from five California counties and is now very rare in six others. Statewide, breeding groups of owls declined nearly 60 percent from the 1980s to the early 1990s. A census in 1991-93 found only about 9,200 pairs of owls remaining in California, according to the Center for Biological Diversity in San Francisco. To volunteer or to contribute to W.E.R.C. call 779-9372.
