An Owl That Is Heard But Hard To See Charlotte Lukes admires an adult saw whet owl that was captured to be banded. This little dynamo weighs only about 3.7 ounces and is a predator, mainly of mice. Too many people normally assume that all owls are more or less at the top of their food chains. This may hold true for especially the largest of the owls we have a chance of seeing in this region, namely the great-horned and snowy owls, but it surely does not include our smallest owl, the northern saw whet. Actually mortality in the wild for these eight-inch-long owls is fairly high. Not only must they compete with boreal owls, European starlings and squirrels for nest cavities, they also are commonly preyed upon by the larger owls, including the great-horned and barred, as well as Cooper’s hawks and northern goshawks. A phone call in 1972 from one of my fellow teachers at the time, Hulda Hoefert, informed me that that a small owl had flown against one of their farmhouse windows and killed itself. In describing its size I immediately sensed that it might be a saw whet owl. Several minutes later she delivered it to me and I was correct. Even though I had seen a few in the wild in past years, this one turned out to be the first one that I actually handled. Upon examining the owl I was impressed with its whisper-soft downy feathers. Being a northern owl it has heavily-feathered legs – warm leggings to protect against severe winter cold. It is chocolate-brown above with fine white dots and streaks, and is white below with rather broad brown stripes. Its talons were needle-sharp, and I marveled at the tacky feel of the roughened skin on the bottom of its feet. What a gripping surface they must provide the owl for holding onto its prey that may include white-footed mice, shrews and voles along with a lesser number of small squirrels, moles, bats and house mice. Nearly all of their food consists of small wild mammals. A continuous, repeating, amplified recording of this male owl’s courtship call, that sounds like a whistled "hoop" or "whook," emitted at the rate of about three notes every two seconds, was experimented with by my bird-banding friend, Tom Erdman, during the 1980’s to lure the saw whets into his mist nests at night during the fall migration of some of these owls. The technique proved to be highly successful resulting in Tom’s harmlessly capturing, banding and being able to study anywhere from 600 to 900 saw whets each fall. The saw-whet’s name actually comes from its "SKEew" of "SWEE-aw" call that it emits when alarmed. This sound resembles a person whetting or sharpening a saw. Visualize clamping a cross-cut saw in a vice and then filing one tooth at a time. In other words you are "whetting" the saw and, in the process, producing an extremely raspy sound. What a descriptively appropriate name the tiny saw-whet owl has. Perhaps if its song were more owl-like, such as the great-horned owl’s "WHO-boe WHO-boe" or the barred owl’s "Who cooks for you, who cooks for YOUall," more people who watch and listen outdoors at night would get to know this beautiful creature. Whether the saw whet is making its monotone short whistled "whook whook whook" or its saw-sharpening-like song, "SWEEaw SWEEaw," the tone is generally near middle C or slightly higher. Few people, upon hearing this nighttime music, would ever guess it is coming from a tiny owl. It is difficult to imagine an adult owl of this region weighing only about three and seven-tenths ounces. Many of you can visualize the size of a northern flicker. In fact the saw-whet, being about three inches shorter, will frequently nest in an old flicker cavity. This owl’s home is usually the dark mixed-conifer-hardwood forest where there will be a good supply of old unused nesting cavities from flickers or pileated woodpeckers. It is often the clamor of some robins, blue jays or even chickadees that will lead you to one of these exquisite, almost melancholy-looking owls perched usually within four or five feet of the ground, extremely tame and content to sit and watch you intently. In the case that a small stream meanders through the woods, you will stand an even better chance of lucking onto a saw-whet simply because of the various small mammals and frogs also attracted to sites like this. A feature of this owl that greatly impressed me, upon seeing my first live, hand-held specimen from very close range, were the beautiful bright yellow irises of its eyes. I also got the distinct impression that its eyes were unusually large for the bird’s relatively small size. Small facial discs, like shallow little reflectors, set off its eyes impressively and help the hunting owl to concentrate faint sounds more precisely to its ears. Not only are the eyes capable of amazingly fast focus, they also have two foveae enabling the owl to focus on a near and far object simultaneously. They have about 100 times the light gathering ability of a human’s eyes. The saw whet owl surely is a wonderful bird – a very important member of the natural world – in spite of its small size. This column appeared in the Door County Advocate on 10/26/2001. © Copyright 2001 Roy Lukes. All rights reserved.