The Northern Saw-whet Owl is one of the smallest owls in North America, barely larger than a robin, with an oversized round head, no ear tufts, and large yellow eyes set in a pale facial disk that give it an almost cartoonishly appealing look. Strictly nocturnal and superbly camouflaged, it roosts by day in dense conifers, often so tame or trusting that a lucky observer can approach closely. Its name comes from one of its calls, a repeated whetting note once likened to the sound of a saw being sharpened; more familiar is a monotonous, tooting whistle repeated for minutes on end in late winter and spring.
Despite being fairly common, saw-whets are so small, silent, and secretive that most people never encounter one. They breed in the coniferous and mixed forests of northern Michigan, nesting in old woodpecker holes and nest boxes, and migrate at night in surprising numbers — a movement revealed only by banding stations that catch and release hundreds each fall. They hunt mice and voles in the dark, dropping silently onto prey from a low perch.
Hunts small mammals, especially deer mice and voles, taken in silent night attacks from a low perch, and eats some insects and small birds. A saw-whet often caches surplus prey and, in cold weather, will "incubate" a frozen stored mouse to thaw it before eating.
The name comes from one of its calls, a rasping, whetting note thought to resemble the sound of sharpening (whetting) a saw. Its most common vocalization, though, is a steady series of monotonous tooting whistles.
Rarely, despite its being fairly common. The saw-whet is tiny, strictly nocturnal, silent, and well camouflaged, roosting by day in dense conifers, so most people never notice one even where they are present.
Banding stations across the Great Lakes region capture and release hundreds of migrating saw-whets each fall, revealing a large nocturnal migration that would otherwise go almost entirely unseen.
Juveniles are unmistakable — deep chocolate brown with a rich rusty-buff belly and a bold white V between the eyes, with none of the adult's streaking. They keep this plumage only into late summer, so it is a brief and much-photographed stage.
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