RESEARCH AND SUPPORT

The Northern Saw-whet owl (Aegolius acadicus) is the smallest of Pennsylvania’s owls, barely as tall as a soda can and weighing a little more than a roll of quarters. Saw-whets are rusty brown below, chocolate-colored above with white spots, and with large, yellow eyes. Unlike the Eastern Screech-owl, also common across Pennsylvania, the Saw-whet has no feathered “ear” tufts sticking up on its head. Saw-whets nest in tree cavities with the males advertising their territories beginning in late winter.

The most common call is a high, whistled toot, about one per second, that sounds a lot like the back-up alarm on a large truck. Other common vocalizations include cat-like mews; long, eerie whines and sharp bill-snaps. In fact, the saw-whet owl got its name from that peculiar tooting sound that resembles the rasping sound made by a file sharpening, or whetting, a saw. Other folk names included Saw-filer, Sparrow Owl, Whetsaw and White-fronted Owl. Its scientific name, Aegolius acadicus, means “the owl of Acadia,” a reference to Nova Scotia, where the first specimen was collected in the late 1700s.

Since 1997, the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art has been a leader in the effort to learn more about the Northern Saw-whet Owl, the East’s smallest and most elusive owls.

Each autumn the Center’s team of trained researchers and volunteers harmlessly catch, band and release hundreds of these tiny raptors at three banding stations in central Pennsylvania. They lure them into nearly invisible mist nets by playing a recording of the owl’s unique tooting call.

The Center also plays a key role in coordinating an informal network of more than 120 owl banding stations across North America. In the process, we’ve helped map the movements of a species so secretive that most avid birders have never glimpsed one – an owl that was, until recently, considered quite rare.

Click below to learn more or symbolically adopt an owl!