Breeding Season Food Habits of Burrowing Owls in South-Central Montana

Abstract

We studied the diet of the burrowing owl (Speotyto cunicularia) during the breeding season in south-central Montana from 1990 to 1992 One thousand. eight hundred, ninety-six pellets, and various prey remains yielded 2497 prey items or these, 72.2 percent were small mammals with prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster) most dominant. Mice (Peromyscus spp.) were the second most numerous prey eaten. Insects were difficult to quantify from pellets and likely were under-represented in the sample, few amphibians and birds were eaten. Prey ranged in size from < 1 -g insects, to 104-g northern pocket gophers (Thomomys, talpoides) with most vertebrate prey weighing about 35 g.