{"id":26957,"date":"2015-07-27T04:43:41","date_gmt":"2015-07-27T10:43:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=26957"},"modified":"2025-10-13T19:24:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T00:24:42","slug":"it-is-tough-being-a-bird-photographer-when-it-comes-to-burrowing-owls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/07\/27\/it-is-tough-being-a-bird-photographer-when-it-comes-to-burrowing-owls\/","title":{"rendered":"It Is Tough Being A Bird Photographer When It Comes To Burrowing Owls"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JuvenileJuvenile Burrowing Owl perched on a watering trough<\/span><\/p>\n

You might wonder why I think it is tough being a bird photographer when it comes to Burrowing Owls.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Burrowing Owl parallaxing on a sagebrush<\/span><\/p>\n

It isn’t because I get up so early to photograph them.<\/p>\n

\"AdultAn adult Burrowing Owl giving me a look of curiosity<\/span><\/p>\n

It isn’t because they are hard to find.<\/p>\n

\"PairPair of juvenile Burrowing Owl siblings perched on posts<\/span><\/p>\n

Or that I drove 90 miles to get to where the Burrowing Owls are.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Burrowing Owl framed by a barbed wire fence<\/span><\/p>\n

It isn’t because they are particularly difficult to photograph.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Burrowing Owl looking at a vole on the ground<\/span><\/p>\n

And it isn’t because I have already been up nearly three and a half\u00a0 hours by the time I get to where the owls are.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Burrowing Owl parallaxing while perched on a fence post<\/span><\/p>\n

It is tough because they are so funny that it is hard to suppress my laughter.<\/p>\n

\"YoungA young Burrowing Owl in early morning light<\/span><\/p>\n

It is tough because I usually take a tons of images and that means…<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Burrowing Owl perched in front of a field of grain<\/span><\/p>\n

It is tough to weed through the images…<\/p>\n

\"BurrowingBurrowing Owl juvenile with a firm grip on sagebrush<\/span><\/p>\n

And tough deciding which ones to keep.<\/p>\n

\"JuvenileJuvenile Burrowing Owl stare down<\/span><\/p>\n

When you take over seven hundred images in one sitting that takes a long time to go through them all.<\/p>\n

\"LooksLooks like this juvenile Burrowing Owl needs some coffee!<\/span><\/p>\n

But what is really tough<\/span> is deciding which images to share because it is hard to get bad images of these cute desert owls. Yeah, I know. “Poor baby”. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

So I figured what the heck, I’d share a Baker’s Dozen Burrowing Owl<\/span><\/a> images that I created yesterday!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Burrowing Owl photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

All images were taken with my Nikon D810, Nikkor 500mm VR with the 1.4x TC attached. Sorry there are no techs but there are just too many images!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might wonder why I think it is tough being a bird photographer when it comes to Burrowing Owls. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27,1148,52,26],"tags":[4004,55,4021,2663,4214,4098,4157,90,4067,56,3967,294,57,2315,4516,4193],"class_list":["post-26957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-burrowing-owls","category-utah","tag-adult","tag-athene-cunicularia","tag-bird-photography","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-burrowing-owl","tag-desert","tag-funny","tag-humor-2","tag-immature","tag-juveniles-2","tag-owl","tag-owls","tag-parallaxing","tag-summer-3","tag-western-burrowing-owl","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvenile-watering-trough-mia-mcpherson-8630.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-70N","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1441,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2010\/11\/23\/adult-burrowing-owls\/","url_meta":{"origin":26957,"position":0},"title":"Adult Burrowing Owls","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I felt it was time to put the beauty of the adult Burrowing Owls in the limelight.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult western Burrowing Owl in morning light, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-mia-mcpherson-adult-0411.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-mia-mcpherson-adult-0411.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-mia-mcpherson-adult-0411.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-mia-mcpherson-adult-0411.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":195,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2010\/08\/16\/burrowing-owl-juveniles\/","url_meta":{"origin":26957,"position":1},"title":"Burrowing Owl Juveniles","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"August 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"If you have never had the opportunity to photograph Burrowing Owl juveniles I would suggest you find a burrow and be prepared to laugh yourself silly.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Three Burrowing Owl juveniles, causeway to Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-utah-three-juveniles-mia-mcpherson-8264.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-utah-three-juveniles-mia-mcpherson-8264.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-utah-three-juveniles-mia-mcpherson-8264.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-utah-three-juveniles-mia-mcpherson-8264.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 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Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvie-stretch-mia-mcpherson-0600.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvie-stretch-mia-mcpherson-0600.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvie-stretch-mia-mcpherson-0600.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvie-stretch-mia-mcpherson-0600.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8621,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2013\/06\/19\/western-burrowing-owls-are-declining-throughout-their-range\/","url_meta":{"origin":26957,"position":3},"title":"Western Burrowing Owls Are Declining Throughout Their Range","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Western Burrowing Owls populations are declining, human population explosion and subsequent urban development plus habitat degradation has reduced Burrowing Owl populations by 60% and that number is still rising.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Adult and juvenile Burrowing Owl on sagebrush, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owls-adult-juvie-mia-mcpherson-5881.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owls-adult-juvie-mia-mcpherson-5881.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owls-adult-juvie-mia-mcpherson-5881.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owls-adult-juvie-mia-mcpherson-5881.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":98321,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/12\/20\/aba-bird-of-the-year-2022-the-burrowing-owl\/","url_meta":{"origin":26957,"position":4},"title":"ABA Bird Of The Year 2022 – The Burrowing Owl!","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"It was announced yesterday that the Burrowing Owl is the 2022 ABA Bird of the Year! Burrowing Owls are small, long-legged, sandy-colored, charismatic owls with bright yellow eyes.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Burrowing Owl on a stump in soft morning light, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/burrowing-owl-immature-morning-light-mia-mcpherson-7693.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/burrowing-owl-immature-morning-light-mia-mcpherson-7693.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/burrowing-owl-immature-morning-light-mia-mcpherson-7693.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/burrowing-owl-immature-morning-light-mia-mcpherson-7693.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4029,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/01\/17\/juvenile-burrowing-owl-portrait\/","url_meta":{"origin":26957,"position":5},"title":"Juvenile Burrowing Owl Portrait","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Burrowing Owls are beautiful birds with lemony yellow eyes, downy soft feathers and subtle coloration. It's hard to believe that they aren't that much different in size from an American Robin.","rel":"","context":"In "Antelope Island State Park"","block_context":{"text":"Antelope Island State Park","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/locations\/utah\/antelope-island-state-park\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Burrowing Owl portrait, Antelope Island State Park, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvenile-portrait-mia-mcpherson-0395.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvenile-portrait-mia-mcpherson-0395.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvenile-portrait-mia-mcpherson-0395.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}