The Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency recently shared exciting results from its Burrowing Owl Conservation and Recovery Program—and they’re worth celebrating. In 2025, 142 adult Western Burrowing Owls formed 52 successful breeding pairs and produced 233 young, marking the largest regional population since the program began in 2014. This milestone shows what’s possible when conservation partners work together with long-term vision and care. And it’s an example of why Green Foothills’ work to preserve wildlife habitat in the South Bay is so important.
Western Burrowing Owls used to be a common sight in local grasslands, standing at the entrances to the ground squirrel tunnels where they typically make their homes. But by the early 1990s habitat loss, urban development, predation, and environmental changes had contributed to dramatic declines in population throughout the Bay Area, with 75% of the remaining population concentrated in Santa Clara County. The decline continued over the next 20 years, raising concerns that the owls would disappear entirely without direct intervention to save them.
Beginning in 2014, the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency and its partners at Talon Ecological Research Group began an ambitious project to stabilize and increase the Burrowing Owl population in our region. The project included protecting habitat where the owls nested, as well as captive breeding, supplemental feeding, and even creating artificial burrows to help the owls nest and breed successfully.
When we last published an article about the owls in 2022, it was not clear whether the Habitat Agency’s program would be successful. But the program has been having amazing success recently. Thanks to the Habitat Agency and its collaborators—Talon Ecological Research Group, Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), Santa Clara County Parks, and Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA—Western Burrowing Owls have been brought back from the brink of local extinction.
Green Foothills is proud that we played a part in ensuring adoption of the Habitat Agency’s Habitat Conservation Plan, which guides the agency’s work to protect local endangered species, including Burrowing Owls. The protection of sensitive habitats is critical to the survival of the ecosystems on which we all depend. Statewide, the Burrowing Owl population is still declining, and the process of considering whether to list it as a threatened or endangered species is still ongoing. But we are pleased to be able to report that local efforts have demonstrated it is possible to increase the owl population. This is truly something to celebrate!
Want to learn more? Watch this new video about Santa Clara County’s Burrowing Owls and efforts to protect them, courtesy of Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance’s speaker series.