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Northern Saw-whet Owl (Aegolius acadicus)

Photo credit: Gerald and Buff Corsi
© California Academy of Sciences.

Length: 7 in.
Habitat: Low, moist, coniferous woodland; in winter in evergreen thickets in parks, yards, estates; also isolated pines.
Range: Southern Alaska, Manitoba, Nova Scotia south to Connecticut, Maryland, Kansas, New Mexico, California, and southern Mexico. Winters south to Guatemala and the Gulf Coast.

This is a very small, earless, yellow-eyed owl; brown above, streaked with white and rufous below. It is usually silent; in later winter and spring the Saw-whet owl utters a monotonous series of whistles.

Saw-whet owls are almost entirely nocturnal, spending the day roosting quietly in dense foliage. At such times they are extraordinarily tame and may be approached closely or even handled. At night this tiny owl becomes a rapacious hunter, preying on mice and other small rodents.