Northern Saw-whet Owl

Every year, I try and make it down to Chillicothe at least once to observe a most interesting research project, now in its sixth year. Kelly Williams-Sieg, Bill Bosstic, and Bob Placier run an owl-banding operation that specializes in capturing the smallest hooter in these parts: the Northern Saw-whet Owl.

Last night was the night, and we scored! Only one owl, and we had to wait until 11 pm to snag it, but the wait and the late night were well worthwhile. This was their 317th owl captured to date, and some photos of the experience follow.

Kelly quickly and deftly untangles the owl. Long mistnets are strung through brushy habitat along the edge of a woods, and the male owl's toot-toot-toot call is broadcast loudly from speakers near the net. The audio lures in the birds, and results in what you see above.

After capture, an owl is brought to the "lab"; an old house on the property. There, the owl can be safely and comfortably inspected. That's Kelly, foreground and right; Bill Bosstic is directly behind her.

Saw-whets are not large - about the size of an American Robin - but appear much bigger when they spread their wings. Or we spread them. This bird is in its second year, and is probably a female.

My, what big feet you have! While the owl may be pint-sized, you don't want to get pinched by those talons, trust me. They are a vole's worst nightmare. I was carrying the owl back from the nets in a mesh bag, and she managed to plunge one of those hypodermic needle talons into my palm. Smarts a bit, I'll say.

An owl's grip doesn't quickly give out the way that yours would, say, if you tried to hold a heavy pail full of water. Their feet and talons are essentially vise-like, and once they've locked onto something they are capable of maintaining a crushing grip for a LONG time.

Here, Kelly is gathering data about this bird's talons. The temperament of a saw-whet is incredible. In spite of all the oohing and aahing, poking and probing, this bird never so much as snapped its bill (that's what owls do when alarmed). I don't think its heart rate even elevated one beat. It just watched us curiously, and tolerated all of the manhandling with great aplomb. The only thing one must watch out for is the talons, as they have a reflex action to clamp onto anything that comes into contact, such as my poor hand.

Now this truly seems like an excessive indignity! But owl researchers need to know the weight of the animal, and the best and safest way is to drop it into a tube and plop the whole shebang onto a scale. Just like this. A hefty saw-whet might tip the scale to 90 or 100 grams. That's about the same as a fat Blue Jay.

Owl in tube. I'd be furious if someone did that to me, but not this little owl. She was just as mellow and seemingly forgiving when extricated as she was before.

The blacklight treatment is a bit surreal, but it reveals a lot about the age of the feathers. The purple glow is caused by pigments called porphyrin, and owls apparently are the only group of birds that have this chemical in their feathers. Its concentration decreases with age, and by "reading" an owl under blacklight, researchers can gauge molt patterns and gather evidence as to the bird's age.

This is something you won't see every day - an owl's ear. The pale gray structure on the right within the cavity is the back of the eye, and in saw-whets, the eyes and associated hardware constitute about 5% of the bird's total mass. Those are some amazing peepers, if you think about it. For comparison, a 200 lb. man with similarly-sized sight organs would have ten pound eyes!

Saw-whets and many other owls have offset ears - one is higher than the other. This allows for outstanding triangulation of sounds, and is the main reason owls can catch prey in near total darkness, or under a blanket of snow.

Your blogger provides a perspective of scale. These tiny owls are remarkably tolerant of being handled. After all data collection is done, and we've sat them in a dark place for a bit to reacclimate their eyes to darkness, we'll place the bird on someone's arm. Even though it is free to go, it'll often just stay put for a minute or so, peering about. This bird, when we released it, just flew to the nearby bough of a tree and watched us.

Charming and cute, to be sure, but a predator through and through. You wouldn't want to look over your shoulder and see that face roaring in, if you were a White-footed Mouse.

Thanks to Kelly, Bob, Bill, Lisa, Dave, Tim Tolford and everyone else who works with saw-whets. Their work has cast much light on an animal that not too long ago was very poorly known. If you would like to learn more, CLICK HERE for a brief summary of Project Owlnet.