Wildlife experts call it a bird with "attitude."
A tiny but keen hunter, the northern saw-whet owl, has a catlike face, oversized head, and bright yellow eyes.
This one appears to wink!
Squamish birder Chris Dale spotted it in Squamish recently.
According to the British Columbia Breeding Bird Atlas, it is likely the most common raptor in southern Canada and the northern United States.
It prefers dense forests and feeds on mice and other small mammals.
This nocturnal raptor is not easily spotted.
It has a high-pitched too-too-too call and likely got its name from one of its calls that sounds like a saw as it is sharpened on a whetting stone, according to All About Birds, a website authored by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
The female is responsible for all of the incubation and brooding, while the male does the hunting.
"When the youngest nestling is about 18 days old, the female leaves the nest to roost elsewhere. The male continues bringing food, which the older nestlings may help feed...their younger siblings," states allaboutbirds.org.
The oldest of this species was about nine years old when it was captured and released by a Minnesota bird bander in 2007.
It was originally banded in Ontario in 1999.
