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The burrowing owl really gets around. It may only be about ten inches tall and more anatomically designed for walking than for flying, but it has a very wide range. You'll find it in a number of the prairie areas of the world. In southwest Canada, western USA and Florida, for instance. As well as in Central and South America.  
Did you know...the burrowing owl lives in a hole in the ground that's been vacated by a prairie dog or some other mammal...or in the hole of a gopher tortoise that's still occupying the premises. That's right, the burrowing owl has a symbiotic relationship with the gopher tortoise. "And that's not all, folks!" There's every possibility that a rattlesnake may be "hangin' out" with the others. And a frog. It certainly surprised me, since burrowing owls eat them, but it's been reported that frogs have also been found in gopher tortoise holes.

All of these animals seem to benefit from the ability of the tortoise to dig a great hole. A hole that slopes down to a depth of 10 to 12 inches and is about a foot-and-a-half wide. It digs its hole to escape the sun's heat, of course. And that, by the way, is the attraction for the rattlesnake. You see, rattlesnakes just can't abide heat. No snakes can, in fact. If a snake gets too much sun, too fast, it will die in a matter of 20 or 30 minutes. This has to do with its need to keep its body temperature the same as the temperature of the air. If the day heats up too fast, the snake's slow metabolism can't catch up, just can't adjust in time...and the snake dies.

A burrowing owl doesn't have that problem, however. It's a warm-blooded animal that can take heat, or leave it. It's a very alert bird that does its hunting at night. Eating insects of all kinds, small rodents, small lizards and other reptiles. During the day, you'll see it standing up on the mound (made by the gopher tortoise) looking around. It reminds me of the wonderful way prairie dogs stand on the dirt mounds next to their holes. Both the burrowing owl and prairie dog use the mound as a sentinel post, of course. It's their high ground to see if danger is coming.

Now here's the key to this Did You Know?

The alarm signal of a burrowing owl sounds almost exactly like the rattle of a rattlesnake. Amazing, isn't it? How could this have possibly developed? Did the owl somehow figure out that when a rattlesnake rattled its rattle, animals backed away? Is there any way that the burrowing owl could even understand what is and what isn't a threat to a rattlesnake? Just how did a burrowing owl figure out that if it mimics the sound of a rattlesnake it can confuse a potential predator and keep it away from the hole?