{"id":39411,"date":"2016-05-12T04:16:26","date_gmt":"2016-05-12T10:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=39411"},"modified":"2025-10-14T09:09:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:09:39","slug":"juvenile-burrowing-owl-balancing-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2016\/05\/12\/juvenile-burrowing-owl-balancing-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Juvenile Burrowing Owl Balancing Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JuvenileJuvenile Burrowing Owl balancing on wire – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4 TC, natural light, not baited
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ve been thinking about Burrowing Owls a lot lately and wondering when I will see my first of the year juvenile sticking its head out of it burrow and looking around its world.<\/p>\n

The adult owls are great to photograph but the young owls are far more entertaining as they learn how to use their wings, their vision, their talons, and how to hunt prey.<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung Burrowing Owl flapping its wings on a wire – Nikon D810, f7.1, 1\/800, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4 TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

I photographed this juvenile Burrowing Owl<\/span><\/a> balancing act last year in northern Utah not long after the sun came up and I have a series of images where it started to lose its balance, tried to regain its balance and then succeeded.<\/p>\n

In most of the images the owl looked very intent on what it was doing, in all of the images the owl was completely adorable.<\/p>\n

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

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to view more of my Burrowing Owl photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I photographed this juvenile Burrowing Owl balancing act last year in northern Utah not long after the sun came up <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160298,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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":""},"categories":[27,1148,52,26],"tags":[55,5145,4430,2663,4214,4098,3830,4071,3967,4455,294,11852,153,5668,2315,2765,4193],"class_list":["post-39411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-box-elder-county-utah","category-burrowing-owls","category-utah","tag-athene-cunicularia","tag-balancing","tag-barbed-wire","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-burrowing-owl","tag-desert","tag-fence","tag-juvenile","tag-owl","tag-owlet","tag-owls","tag-ranchlands","tag-raptors","tag-rusty","tag-summer-3","tag-wire","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvenile-mia-mcpherson-8915.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-afF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25720,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2015\/06\/23\/a-morning-spent-at-a-burrowing-owl-burrow\/","url_meta":{"origin":39411,"position":0},"title":"Morning Spent At A Burrowing Owl Burrow","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"June 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I posted an image of Burrowing Owl siblings that I found in northern Utah and today I am posting images of that burrow after spending yesterday morning being delighted by them once more.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Burrowing Owl juvenile fluttering its wings, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owls-juvenile-balance-mia-mcpherson-8914.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-juvenile-balance-mia-mcpherson-8914.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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"Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Juvenile Burrowing Owl calling while in flight, Box Elder County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvenile-calling-flight-mia-mcpherson-0655.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvenile-calling-flight-mia-mcpherson-0655.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvenile-calling-flight-mia-mcpherson-0655.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvenile-calling-flight-mia-mcpherson-0655.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-juvenile-watering-trough-mia-mcpherson-8630.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-watering-trough-mia-mcpherson-8630.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvenile-watering-trough-mia-mcpherson-8630.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/burrowing-owl-juvenile-watering-trough-mia-mcpherson-8630.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":39411,"position":3},"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, 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