Francesca Scalpi

NORTHERN PYGMY OWL- Glaucidium californicum
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The Northern Pygmy-Owl may be tiny, but it’s a ferocious hunter with a taste for songbirds. These owls are mostly dark brown and white, with long tails, smoothly rounded heads, and piercing yellow eyes.

They hunt during the day by sitting quietly and surprising their prey. As a defensive measure, songbirds often gather to mob sitting owls until they fly away. Mobbing songbirds can help you find these unobtrusive owls, as can listening for their call, a high-pitched series of toots.

Northern Pygmy-Owls are widespread in the mountains of western North America, and they’re active during the day, which gives you a good chance of finding them. But they’re also small and unobtrusive as they sit and wait for prey to approach them.

A plump little owl with short wings and long tail; yellow eyes, yellowish- white beak, dark, white-ringed “false eyes” on back of head. Range: Western North America, from southeastern Alaska and British Columbia south to California, Arizona, and northern Mexico.

Males: grayish-brown with fine white spotting. Females: tend to be slightly darker than males. Young: spotting on head, dark beak.