ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIES
THE OWLS
Saw-whet or Acadian Owl
The other species is the Saw-whet or Acadian Owl (C. acadica), a handsome little bird between seven and a quarter and nine inches in length, found in temperate Canada and northern United States, but extending southward in the western mountains through Mexico to the high mountains of Guatemala.
In color it is brown more or less spotted with white above, and white striped with reddish brown below. It is a gentle, engaging little Owl, strictly nocturnal in its habits, spending the day in some dark recess and issuing forth at dusk. Although it is not migratory in the usual sense of the word, it appears to wander more or less in winter, apparently in search of food, and may suddenly become abundant in a locality only to disappear again, perhaps for several years.
During the winter it is not uncommonly observed in barns, the writer once having seen several in an old hay barn in Vermont. At such times it is easily approached and may sometimes be taken in the hand. Curiously enough, it is often found dead in an emaciated condition in the most southern portions of its range, where it is difficult to understand how it could have starved. It usually selects a hollow tree or Woodpecker's hole for a nesting site, but it sometimes makes use of an open nest. The eggs, from four to seven in number, are deposited usually early in April. It takes its common name of Saw-whet from its peculiar rasping call, which resembles the sound produced when a large-toothed saw is being filed. An allied species (C. ridgwayi) has recently been discovered in the high mountains of Costa Rica.
previous bird species next bird species
Footer
Footer