Northern Saw-Whet

[Marc St Louis]

I spooked one of these yesterday right behind my shop as I was going out for a walk, he literally took off right above my head as I went by a tree.  He was not afraid of me and only went 10 yards before landing.I had not seen one of these in 40 years so I admired him for awhile then continued.  When I came back from my walk I slowly approached the spot where he had taken off and sure enough he was back in the same tree.  I circled around him and grabbed a camera for some pics.  He stands about 8" tall right there.

[Pappy]

Very cool,nice picture.
   Pappy

[mullet]

Nice picture, marc. I love watching owls in the Spring when I'm turkey hunting. I live in the middle of town and have a group of screech owls that live in my Maple tree.

[Patches]

Love to see those little owls.  They make it here to Missouri, but they are so secretive you do not see many of them.  Been 20 + years since Ihave seen one.  Cool find!

[Zuma]

Cool, now you need to crop and enlarge the photo.
Any idea if it is immature or grown?
Zuma

[Parnell]

We have burrowing owls down here and come across 'em a few times.  Wonderful creatures. 

Great picture.

[JW_Halverson]

Zuma, it's full grown by now, this is their migration season. 

One of the smallest owns in the Western Hemisphere, they run just under 3 oz!  Mice, voles, bats, and small birds die in their vicious talons.  I helped band then several years in the fall, and they were one of the worst little buggers to get out of a mist net.  It was a virtual guarantee they were gonna draw blood on you.  Most species of small owls will become docile when handled (they aren't calmed down, they are so filled with fear response that they shut down) but saw whets keep fighting right up until released! 

[Marc St Louis]

It's the PA system that shrunk the pic but I'll crop it a bit more and post it. 

I wanted to see how close I could get to him before he got nervous and I was about 8' away when all the feathers on his head stood straight up, turned his head white, and he started shifting from one foot to the other so I backed away

[DC]

When I was a kid a saw whet appeared on a neighbours porch. You could walk right up to it. I'm not sure if you could pet it or not. It hung around for 2 or 3 days watching us kids and then disappeared. I always wondered if it was a pet or something. Very tame little critter.

[Marc St Louis]

I hope this picture is better

[chamookman]

A Friend was cleaning out Wood Duck houses in the Fall one time, and was surprised when He discovered a Saw-Whet had set up residence in one. Bob

[JW_Halverson]

Perfect coincidence.  Just got an email from the Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory asking for volunteers to sign up for banding northern saw-whets again this fall.  Hours of silently standing around in the cold dark listening to an amplified digital recording of a saw whet call over and over and over, hoping a bird will fly into the mist nets so you can reach in, get bit and footed and bloody and infected, clock ticking while you and volunteers race to measure, weigh, record, band, shine UV light to count reflective feathers on the wings (technique for aging owls), band it and release it. 

It's kinda like working the emergency room with no heat or sufficient light.  Lots of boring until it gets VERY NOT BORING. And if you are lucky, you will get two or three birds in 6 hours of work. 

Here's a link, add the www stuff to make it work, to some recordings of their calls.  allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Saw-whet_Owl/sounds