Northern Pygmy-owl

After 11 months searching every tree branch in Olympia, Washington, on 11 February 2020 Erika and I found a Northern Pygmy-Owl. This bird is one of North America’s smallest owls, at only 6 inches, making it hard to see even though it hunts by day. Despite its size, this owl is described as a “blood-thirsty, rapacious...fiend” (Bent in Holt and Petersen 2000). This owl mostly eats small birds and mammals, but also insects (including dragonflies), amphibians, and reptiles. Probably also because of its size and despite its range across western North America well into Central America, the Northern Pygmy-owl is one of our least-studied owls. Ornithologists suspect what we now call Northern Pygmy-owls may actually comprise two or three distinct species. Different populations vary in details of their single or double-noted whistles and in their color—some are gray while others are a rich chestnut. My only view of this owl was extremely back-lit, which made capturing this bird’s bright chestnut difficult (the color expected in western Washington). Despite being high in a leafless alder, this owl was very hard to see. We only found it because Erika asked a nearby birder what he was so intently photographing.