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.
Obviously we need to hold an owl Olympics and test them in all forms of flying. From gliding to GTFO.
I've seen a few people manage to get cards to perform for shows. I've watched people at the rehabs try to get owls to cooperate as well.
If you're going to an owl Olympics, you're going to be there quite a while! 🤣