The Northern Saw-whet Owl is the smallest owl in Eastern North America. It has a round face with big yellow eyes. The underparts are pale with dark streaks and the upperparts are brown with white spots.
Saw-whet Owls usually nest in abandoned woodpecker holes. Some of these owls are permanent residents while others may migrate south or move down from higher elevations.
The Northern Saw-whet Owl is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is extremely large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
Get ready to dress up your pumpkins this Halloween with some cute Birdorable birds! Below you can download four different cute bird pumpkin carving patterns of varying skill levels as free downloads. Two of our patterns are simple bird cut-outs, and two are inverted designs where the... Read more »
If you think our Birdorable birds are cute as adults, what about when they are babies? Below are some baby photos (shared via Flickr) of the Northern Saw-whet Owl. Northern Saw-whet Owls nest in old tree cavities. The females incubate the eggs and brood the chicks alone.... Read more »
