{"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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":26026,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/07\/01\/a-bundle-of-western-burrowing-owls\/","url_meta":{"origin":26957,"position":5},"title":"Bundle of Western Burrowing Owls","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"July 1, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I thought I would share some images I have taken of Western Burrowing Owls that I took over several days spent with them in Box Elder County, Utah.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Burrowing Owl about to land on a barbed wire fence, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-flight-mia-mcpherson-8669.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-flight-mia-mcpherson-8669.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-flight-mia-mcpherson-8669.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-flight-mia-mcpherson-8669.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"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}]}}