Photo by Grady Weed

Northern Saw-whet Owl
(Aegolius acadicus)

This owl came to the Center for Wildlife in 2007 after being hit by a car and sustaining a wing fracture. He will be trained over the next few months to become an ambassador in our educational outreach programs.

Diet: Being small themselves (with an average height of seven inches), the saw-whets' meal of choice consists of small mammals like chipmunks, voles, shrews, and their very favorite… mice. They usually eat mice in pieces in two different meals, so they don't get too full. Sometimes, they will also eat insects or even small birds.

Habitat: Saw-whet owls like habitats with moisture and dense vegetation. They prefer to live at the edges of mature, moist forests (particularly coniferous ones), and in forested wetlands. In winter, they seek out evergreen thickets. These small owls roost close to the ground, so dense vegetation offers them concealment from both predators and prey. They also like to have many branches around to perch upon. White cedar, hemlock, and red maple are among their favorite trees – especially big ones with holes. Saw-whets can be found throughout New England, but are only common in northern New England.

Reproduction: Saw-whets nest in the holes of large trees. They especially like those made by woodpeckers (the Northern flicker being their favorite nest-builder), but they will also use natural tree cavities or sometimes human-made nest boxes. Maine saw-whets lay their eggs in April and May (their southern neighbors have longer laying periods). They have only one brood per year, with a clutch size that can range from 4 to 7 (the average being 5 or 6). Like many raptors, mother saw-whets guard and warm the eggs through incubation (which lasts 21 to 28 days), while dad provides food for the whole family. The little ones learn to fly when they are 4-5 weeks old. When mom is living in the family nest cavity, she keeps it very clean; but when the little ones reach 18 days old she moves to a different cavity, and the home left to the brood rapidly accumulates dirt, feces, and pellets.

Identification: Northern saw-whets are nocturnal and quiet, so they are hard to spot. But if you are lucky enough to see one roosting during the day, he probably won't fly away but will just stare back at you. They are often thought to be baby owls because they are so small (in fact, the smallest owls in eastern North America). Males are about robin-sized (75g) and females only slightly larger (90g). Their backs and wings are brown with white spots; their bellies are white with reddish brown streaks. On their faces they have a distinct v-shaped white patch coming down to the beak and going over the eyes, like a v-shaped uni-brow. Saw-whets have many different calls, including a rapid tooting, a harsh “skree-aw” (usually after dawn), a fading wail of “pheeuh, pheeuh”, and snappy, down-slurred whistles. Some people say that these whistles sound like a saw blade being “whetted” (sharpened on a whet stone), and that this is the source of their name. Others adamantly deny any similarity to a saw whetting sound, and claim that their name is rather an anglicization of the French word chouette, meaning small owl. In French-speaking Canada, saw-whets are called La chouette.

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