From Ahjet Lin
The Burrowing Owl reaches speeds of up to 145 mph / 235 kmh and plows headfirst like this into the hillside to carve out its burrow. After that, it really needs a place to rest its head!
Gotcha! They just use old holes from badgers and such! 🤣
They are quite aerodynamic though, aren’t they?
I like the landing gear coming out here in these other photos.
Most owls seem to clock in at a top speed of 30-40 mph / 48-64 kmh, which is decent to pretty good for a bird.
Trying to find speed data on birds, and especially owls is not as easy as I was expecting. Most birds have a regular cruising speed and then a “I’m out of here!” speed. Owls tend to do more gliding to conserve energy and to stay quiet and go slowly to look for food.
I couldn’t find any data to back it up, but Great Horned Owl and Northern Hawk Owl seem to get the most credit for the fastest owls. I also so a few people list Snowies and Barn Owls as particularly fast owls. Most bird speeds I saw given sounded like estimations or just something repeated without citation, so I wouldn’t take this as a concrete truth.