In the wizarding world of Harry Potter, the owl can take on the work of the courier brother. In the real world, there is a magical animal called the "cave-dwelling owl", which is no less magical than its kind in the novel - they never stay up late, and they are the only owls in the world that live underground.
In the impression of many people, the owl is such a being...
But the next one to appear is an exception, not only never stay up late, but also like to live in the cave.
These little guys who protrude from the burrows of dogs and rats are not rodents. They are the chicks of the burrowing owl, and they are the only owls in North America that have built their nests underground.
The burrowing owl, so named for its fondness to live in caves, lives mainly on grasslands, pastures or deserts, and occasionally appears "randomly" in other people's yards.
For the reason why burrowing owls choose to live underground, some people believe that their main residence is mostly grassland deserts, it is true that there are fewer trees, and the opposite cave resources are very rich, so they live underground. However, as a bird, flapping two wings to make a hole himself, it is not too "elegant", and the cave owl chooses to be neighbors with the groundhog, using the abandoned hole of the groundhog as their free residence.
The tight cry signifies a running coyote, so it's time to escape.
The cave owls who heard the alarm also quickly burrowed into the hole... After the coyote was gone, the groundhog made another call to lift the alarm, and the burrowing owls, just watching what the groundhog was doing, just followed.
It is worth mentioning that when each cave owl faces an empty cave, that is, a "rough house", it has a "decoration plan of 300,000" in mind, after all, everyone wants to decorate their home like their favorite.
So what "decoration style" does the cave owl like?
Well, I have to say that the aesthetic of the burrowing owl is still quite "flavorful", and they prefer feces in decoration materials, especially cow dung, which will be covered with feces at home and in front of their homes. It was previously thought that the burrowing owl did this to mask the smell of the small burrowing owl so that the hunter would not come to the door, but it turned out to be a wrong idea. Burrowing owls do not do this at all to prevent other species from approaching, but rather, they want to attract food to their doors by the smell of feces.
For example, cockroaches, shell langs, crickets and the like. Once these prey find their way, the burrowing owl flaps its wings, shows its two long legs, and begins to run across the grassland to catch these hindsight food.
In addition to insects, burrowing owls also eat some other small mammals, and rats are also on their diets.
Although the appearance of the burrowing owl running may be a little less cool than other owls swooping in the air, the burrowing owl is not without its advantages.
The average owl is generally diurnal and nocturnal because they are amblyopic and have poor vision during the day. But the burrowing owl is different, they have a relatively normal vision, so the work and rest are regular, falling asleep at night and working during the day. With the loss of habitat in recent years and the survival of landlords who help them dig holes, the number of burrowing owls is also decreasing, by a third in just half a century. Some burrowing owl also had to change from "country birds" to "city birds".
The burrowing owl is very adapted to city life and can even enjoy a trip to the beach, it has a planned collection of some food scraps, which are not on the cave owl's menu, what is it going to do?
In the wild, burrowing owls use as bait. But this burrowing owl has adapted perfectly to city life. Now that it has learned to design traps, it can enjoy the delicious food delivered to the door.
Burrowing owls prefer to live in caves, and because of this, they are more vulnerable to natural predators than other owls. As habitat continues to dwindle, the population of burrowing owls has declined by two-thirds in just half a century. They used to live in open savannahs, but now they also settle in places such as airports or golf courses. But for burrowing owls, they may miss running on the prairie more.