From Phil Haynes
Nice to find my garden Little Owl was sitting out this morning.
Burrowing?
Does he have a little owl house? :D
this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2024
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Not Burrowing, Little Owl.
Very similar visually, but different in some significant ways.
Little is on the left above, Burrowing on right.
Little has mainly vertical belly markings, Burrowing more horizontal.
Little lives in Eurasia, Burrowing in the Americas.
Little lives in places maintained by humans, like parks, orchards, fields near trees, Burrowing lives in plains, grasslands, and deserts where it is more open.
I'm unsure if that is meant to be its house. It seems it could be, but seems a bit poor designed for weather. No idea what it would be otherwise though...
Good to know. So Little is essentially Euro-Burrow? (Eurasia-Burasia?)
Cute li'l buggers anyway.
Both are the same genus (Athene) so they're related, but not quite as closely as they look. The Spotted Owlet is currently thought to be the closest genetically to the Little Owl. Some believe Burrowing Owls should be their own genus, but I haven't gotten to look into that more.
As long as we're just going visually, the 2 would probably be the best match, but in most other ways the little guys are surprisingly different.
