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The Little Owls (Winter, 1999)
Owls in Small Packages Playing Tapes Six Little Owls Have You Spotted a Spotted Owl?

The large, ear-tufted shape of a great horned owl is our most common image of an owl. But a host of much smaller owls inhabits our state. We rarely see them, though several are quite common. They live their lives hidden from our view, hunting by night in Colorado’s forests and open country. They are the Little Owls, fierce predators no bigger than robins.

The flammulated, northern pygmy, eastern screech, western screech, northern saw-whet, and burrowing owls all stand, on average, no taller than nine inches. By comparison, a robin is 10 inches long and an American crow is 18 inches. The smallest of this crew, the flammulated owl, is the size of a sparrow, though there’s little chance you would confuse the two. An owl’s plump body shape and large, blocky head give it a distinctive profile.

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With their huge eyes and diminutive size, the little owls are cute and appealing. But an owl is still an owl, even if it’s pocket-sized. These sharp-beaked, fierce-taloned birds of prey are designed for hunting and killing. Some of them prey upon birds much bigger than themselves. The little owls belong to the Typical Owl family, which includes all owls in Colorado except the barn owl, and they share the family’s characteristics. Both vision and hearing are very important to these hunters. Their eyes are extremely large. The eight-inch high screech-owl has eyes about the size of a human child’s. The binocular vision afforded by forward-facing eyes gives them excellent depth perception and judgment of distance, important skills for visual hunters. Owls also have exceptional hearing and can hunt in complete darkness using only sound.

The little owls have wingspans averaging 19 inches, more than twice their length. Silent flight is crucial for a night hunter and these long, wide wings allow the little owls to fly and glide quietly. Their feathers are soft, with a saw-tooth edge that breaks up air passing over the wing, eliminating any sound from wind resistance.

Like other raptors, owls cough up neatly-packaged pellets of indigestible bone, hair, and feathers after a meal. Pellets on the ground beneath a tree are good indicators of a favorite perch. Because owls tend to gulp their prey whole rather than tearing it into pieces as hawks do, pellets often contain whole skulls, bones and insect exoskeletons, good evidence of the owls’ diet.

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 Flame colored. That’s what flammulated means. The secretive flammulated owl is a tiny forest sprite rarely seen but sometimes heard. The flame name derives from rusty-red feathers around the face that seem to flare brightly against the tiny bird’s dull gray plumage and the forest green of its habitat. Flams, as they are sometimes nicknamed by owlers, live in ponderosa pine forests and are largely nocturnal. They sally out from a perch in a short, scurrying flight, grabbing moths in the air with their talons, or capturing insects on tree branches. They nest in abandoned woodpecker holes. Unlike most of the other small owls, they migrate from Colorado for winter.

The northern saw-whet owl’s over-sized head and enormous eyes give it the look of a little professor. When young leave the nest, they stay together for a week or two, learning to hunt from the parent. This is a good time to watch for them. Saw-whets are quite tame and curious around humans. They may fly in and perch nearly at arm’s-length, giving viewers a good look at them. The saw-whet’s call is a steady series of piping whistles, sounded about two hoots a second. Early settlers thought the saw-whet’s persistent high-pitched call sounded like a saw being sharpened or whetted. They are determined predators, feeding on mice, voles, and even bats.

The northern pygmy-owl is one of the few owls active more by day than by night, though greatest activity is from dawn through early morning, and late afternoon through dusk. This allows the pygmy-owl to prey on birds, which are also diurnal and thus not usually hunted by owls. The pygmy-owl is known for a ferocity and strength that belie its miniscule size. It attacks prey as large as or larger than itself—jays, large songbirds, ground squirrels, even small grouse. The pygmy-owl is the frequent target of mobbing by songbirds and the racket can betray the owl’s location. This daytime hunter lacks the soft, silent feathers of the night owls and is a fairly noisy flier, its wings making an airy whirring.

Does the northern pygmy-owl have eyes in the back of its head? A pair of black spots on the nape of the neck looks much like the “eyespots” on some fish and insects. Perhaps they are a disguise that protects the owl from attack from the rear.

Don’t feel alone if you have difficulty telling the difference between a western screech-owl and an eastern screech-owl. Until 1983, they were considered the same species. They are very similar in appearance—small, drum-shaped owls with ear tufts that make them look like tiny versions of a great horned. Both come in gray and reddish color phases and have streaking and barring on their undersides. The best ways to tell them apart are by range and voice. The eastern screech makes a variety of shrieks and its song is a ghostly whinny that goes down in pitch. The western screech starts out with slow, hollow hoots that pick up in tempo but stay on the same pitch. The eastern is found in northeastern Colorado and in parks and back yards of northern Front Range cities, though their human neighbors are often completely unaware of them. The western tends more toward the riparian habitat and piñon-juniper woodlands of southeastern and south central Colorado. City dwellers may attract these cavity nesters to nest boxes placed in back yard trees.

Among the little owls, the burrowing owl, marches to the tune of a different drummer. Everybody else lives in the forest. The burrowing owl inhabits open grasslands. Other owls hang out in trees. The burrowing owl perches on the ground. The other guys nest in tree cavities. The burrowing owl nests underground in abandoned prairie dog burrows. The other owls are mostly nocturnal. The burrowing owl is active during the day (though also at dawn, dusk and night). Most of the others remain in Colorado year-round. The burrowing owl migrates south in fall. Like the gangly kid in the class, the long-legged burrowing owl appears larger than the other small owls, though its slender body is no bigger.

Next: Playing Tapes

(The information contained in this issue of Colorado's Wildlife Company was accurate at the time of its original publication in the winter of 1999. Phone numbers, dates of events, situations/circumstances, and staff positions may have changed in the interim.)