Characterization: Small to medium-size species measuring about 23cm in length. It has brown plumage with white spots, and its eyes are an intense orangish-yellow.

Distribution: It occurs almost everywhere in Brazil.

Habitat: Fields, pastures or changed savanna areas near housing.

Habits: This species is more active during the day.

Diet: Carnivorous, it feeds on insects and small invertebrates it captures on the ground. It may also capture small lizards, snakes, and mice in rather large amounts.

Breeding: This bird lays its eggs in holes in the ground, sometimes close to each other. The hatchlings threaten intruders with a rattle that closely resembles that of the rattlesnake, which can in fact scare off a hunter or woodsman when the sound comes from the inside of a burrow.

In the UFRA area: The Burrowing Owl was seen 28 times, thus it is a moderately frequent species. It prefers drainage ditches, however, it was also found in organic sugarcane fields, exotic woods, in the restored native forests, in native forests, in forests in spontaneous regeneration, and in fields in spontaneous regeneration.