Northern Saw-whet Owl - Feeding

Feeding

These birds wait on a high perch at night and swoop down on prey. They mainly eat small organisms with a focus on small mammals in their diet. In a test done by Swengel and Swengel they found that the Northern Saw-Whet Owls most often eat deer mice, 67% and voles, 16% of the time in Wisconsin. In a similar test done by Holt and Leroux in Montana found that these owls ate more voles than other mammal species. This shows that these owls can change their main prey depending on what is available. Also researched by Holt and Leroux was the eating habits of Northern Saw-Whet owls and Northern Pygmy Owls and found that they prey on different animals for their main food source, showing that they can adapt not only depending on the prey but also with the other predators in the areas where they live.

Other mammals preyed on occasionally include shrews, squirrels (largely chipmunks and Red Squirrels), various other mice species, flying squirrels, moles and bats. Also supplementing the diet are small birds, with passerines such as swallows, sparrows, kinglets and chickadees favored. However, larger birds, up to the size of Rock Pigeon (which are typically about 4 times as heavy as a Saw-whet) can even be taken. On the Pacific coast they may also eat crustaceans, frogs and aquatic insects. Like many owls, these birds have excellent hearing and exceptional vision in low light.