Type: report

Article abstract: The Western Burrowing Owl (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) is a grassland specialist distributed throughout w. North America, primarily in open areas with short vegetation and bare ground in desert, grassland, and shrub-steppe environments. Burrowing Owls are dependent on the presence of fossorial mammals (primarily prairie dogs and ground squirrels), whose burrows are used for nesting and roosting. Burrowing Owls are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in the United States and Mexico. They are listed as Endangered in Canada and Threatened in Mexico. They are considered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to be a Bird of Conservation Concern at the national level, in three USFWS regions, and in nine Bird Conservation Regions . At the state level, Burrowing Owls are listed as Endangered in Minnesota, Threatened in Colorado, and as a Species of Concern in California, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Burrowing Owls historically bred from sc. and sw. Canada southward through the Great Plains and w. United States and south to c. Mexico. Although the historical breeding range is largely intact, range contractions have occurred primarily at peripheral regions, in s. Canada, the ne. Great Plains, and parts of California and the Pacific Northwest. Burrowing Owls winter in the sw. and sc. United States, throughout Mexico, and occasionally as far south as Panama. Populations of Burrowing Owls have declined in several large regions, notably in the ne. Great Plains and Canada. However, estimates of population trends in many regions are generally inconclusive due to small samples sizes and high data variability. Population trends as determined from North American Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data were inconsistent, with some regions exhibiting positive trends and other regions exhibiting negative trends. When taken as a whole, the BBS indicated an area of generally declining populations in the northern half of the Great Plains, and generally increasing populations in the interior U.S. and in some southwestern deserts. The Christmas Bird Count indicated a significant population decline in California (1966-1989). Local surveys have detected declining populations and/or range reductions in California, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and throughout the range of the species in Canada. Primary threats across th