Beverly Ahlering Saltonstall,in her new book, Cape Coral Burrowing Owls Don’t Hoot, writes about a most interesting species of owl to debunk some of the misconceptions around them. She wants to spread awareness about burrowing owls with updated facts and figures that she gathered by observing them firsthand and from other resources relevant to her research.
She notes that one of the oldest birds in the world is also one of the friendliest and mysterious ones, often misunderstood to be harmful and found to be uninterested by most people —owls, or more specifically, burrowing owls. The oldest evidence that the owls have existed is from sixty-one million years ago, a little over some time after the dinosaurs went extinct; the fossils were found in what is now considered to be Colorado. Meanwhile, fossils of burrowing owls that were larger than the existing ones were found in Idaho deposits and Kansas about five thousand and three hundred to two thousand and six hundred million years ago.
Burrowing owls were birds whose ancestors existed during the ice age about two thousand and four hundred million years ago. Some of these species are assumed to be land dwellers because of the size of the fossils discovered, which weigh about 9 pounds, or 9 kilograms, with a height of three feet and seven inches, or about one meter more or less. These measurements of the fossil prove that the early species of the owls, also known as the Giant Owl, whose presence was recorded in Cuba, were probably flightless with their massive structures.
Knowing about the origins of burrowing owls helps us understand them a bit better. With precisely this thought in mind, Saltonstall wrote her book in an informative yet simplistic way that keeps the reader engaged and intrigued, all the while loving the birds even more. So, grab your copy of the book and gain an extensive amount of knowledge about burrowing owls!