Our neighbour let us know that there was a northern saw-whet owl in a tree by his house. He had seen the smaller birds acting agitated, so he went out to see what was going on. I would never have seen it in the tree without him pointing it out to me.
At first I couldn’t see its head. It had its head tucked down for a sleep, and was probably hoping I wouldn’t bother it. They are tiny birds – 6 to 8 inches in length. As you can see, the owl blends in well in the middle of the tree.
The view from behind it shows its short tail and claws. It was aware that we were there, but it was quite happy to stay the way it was.
I finally got it to look at me. It didn’t open its eyes very wide, but if it had, I would have seen its orange-yellow eyes. It does not have ear tufts.
