Listen to Burrowing Owls Hiss Like Rattlesnakes
These tiny desert dwellers use sound to warn away unwanted visitors.
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The Burrowing Owl鈥檚 vocal abilities have raised eyebrows among birders and scientists alike.聽Because as well as its double hoots and other calls, the Burrowing Owl is known for another hair-raising sound: a long, rattling hiss.
Standing on almost comically long legs, this yellow-eyed owl is very active in daytime, and its hissing habit may have evolved to mimic the sibilant warning given by a cornered rattlesnake. This sonic threat of a venomous reptile could be just enough to warn away most unwanted visitors from the owl鈥檚 nest burrow.听滨苍 , ground squirrels were nearly as alarmed by the Burrowing Owl鈥檚 hiss as they were by the recording of a real rattlesnake.
Despite its name, the Burrowing Owl doesn鈥檛 do much digging, though. Instead, it鈥檚 more of a squatter, nesting and roosting in vacant rodent burrows, often those of prairie dogs . . . until it鈥檚 time to eat. Not content with providing the Burrowing Owl鈥檚 accommodation, rodents鈥攅specially mice鈥攁lso provide lunch. Well, they are lunch鈥攚ith a side of large insects. After feasting the聽Burrowing Owl retires again to its mostly subterranean life.
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Bird sounds provided by at the , Ithaca, New York. Burrowing Owl recorded by G. A. Keller; Rattlesnake recorded by S. R. Pantle;聽Burrowing Owl rattlesnake-mimic recording courtesy of Jeff Rice for the at Montana State University.
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漏 2015 Tune In to Nature.org 聽 聽August 2014/2015 聽 Narrator: Michael Stein