Owl Central: Burrowing Owls

Burrowing Owls
Burrowing Owls are small owls with long legs. Unlike other owls, Burrowing Owls mostly live in holes. They borrow burrows once used by other small mammals, or they dig up their own. However, some do live in cracks in rocks that predators can't get into.
The courting ritual is very picky. Males pick the nest-site, usually preferring to use the same nest they used last mating season. They clean out the nest, and somehow get rid of the junk (the process here is not yet known). Then they line the nest with mammal feces. And then they get some more stuff, and put it around the nest. It's not totally sure whether the decorations is for the female or what else.
And then begins the courtship flights. The male flies around his nest, and sings throughout the night. And they have to do this every year, since burrowing owl mates do not couple permantently (sp?).
Momma sits in the nesting chamber at the most 5 feet under the ground. The exact number of eggs she lays isn't known, since counting them requires digging up the nest, which can damage the eggs and kill owlets (though the owl who's sitting flies out at the first sign of trouble). The best guess is 5-6 eggs, at the most, 11.
Momma begins to incubate the eggs, and she does this alone. Dada brings food for both of them... sometimes even extra, which he puts into a cache. Then the eggs hatch.
Burrowing Owls are usually brown. They have yellow pupils. Their beaks can either be grayish or yellowish. Their chests have white buffs or brown barring. Males sometimes change into a more grayish color for a little bit, and females have more barring on the underparts. Otherwise, the coloring is the same on both genders, and it's tricky to tell the two apart.
Burrowing Owls, unlike other owls, don't usually live in forested areas. They live in flat areas, and the places are usually grazed by cattle. They live in both Americas and in Eurasia. Most live pretty far south, but some do live in nothern (sp?) areas with bad winters. They fly down south then, and they can fly a very long way down... even down to South America from North America!
Today, most Burrowing Owls use fences as their perches. But some do live in areas with no fences, and they sure did in the past! So what's used for perches then? The perches are mounds of dirt which came from when the burrow was dug. In the flat areas where Burrowing Owls live, this is high enough for the Burrowing Owl to check out his surroundings, and look out for predators.