Flammulated owls get their name from two ruddy markings that go down their backs, which look like flaming “racing stripes.' The species nests in Utah's alpine and is teaching researchers about the state's changing environments.
Four baby flammulated owls, near Huntsville, on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. Although they’re not currently a threatened species, studying flammulated owls has taught researchers a lot about Utah’s changing environments.At Snowbasin, sturdy wooden boxes decorate aspen tree trunks every mile or so. During the summer, lumps of gray fluff with several pairs of wide black eyes cuddle inside of them: flammulated owl chicks.
Makenna Magdos, undergrad conservation biology student, holds a baby Flammulated owl, near Huntsville, on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. He’s been studying the owls at these sites for almost 25 years, watching populations shrink and grow. With infrared cameras placed near the box openings, he and the other researchers track their breeding, feeding and parenting habits. Though Mika has studied other birds, flammulated owls are especially compelling to him.
Nikki Wayment, executive director of Hawkwatch, often comes along on Mika’s trips into the mountains to find the birds. Recently, they’ve been finding something unusual in the nest boxes: dead songbirds. Typically, the flammulated owl diet is made up of insects, but they can go after other larger prey when necessary. Over the past few weeks, the team has found evidence of rosy finch skeletons and even a half-eaten blue sparrow in the boxes.
The team has recently set up insect traps around Snowbasin, called malaise traps, to figure out what the population looks like and if the popular owl prey species are not as common this year. On a broader scale, the state of Utah uses conservation data like this to determine what action the Division of Wildlife Resources can take to aid natural areas. Adam Brewerton, a wildlife conservation biologist for northern Utah, is in charge of getting the approval for teams like Mika’s to do research on public lands.
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