Breeder in the higher elevations; winter resident over most of the region. Uncommon to fairly common in the breeding season along the southern Blue Ridge Parkway (Great Balsam and Pisgah ranges) and in Great Smoky Mountains NP, above 5,000 feet. Generally uncommon elsewhere in spruce-fir stands, being found at essentially all such stands (Black Mountains, Grandfather Mountain, Roan Mountain, Long Hope Valley, etc.). Also apparently nests in some hardwood stands, such as Pickens Nose (Macon). On the breeding grounds, arrives probably in Mar. At lower elevations, probably Oct into Apr; abundance poorly known in winter, though likely not truly rare except at lower elevations.
A month or two ago I ran into local birder Eric Smith while we were birding Jackson Park. At the end of our walk Eric told me about a calling Saw-whet Owl he had had at his house almost all summer long in 2018. But Eric doesn’t live in the higher mountains – he lives in east central Henderson County at about 2,000 feet in elevation. They’re not supposed to be nesters at those lower elevations. When we parted ways Eric agreed to get back in touch with me if his Saw-whet happened to return.
I stayed in touch with Eric subsequently, sharing recent sightings and trading ID tips. Then on April 8th Eric contacted me to say he had just seen a Saw-whet at his house – his first observation since the calling bird 2 summers ago. That sure was intriguing to say the least. He was happy to have me come by his place and try for it, and although I was skeptical about whether we might re-find it, I decided to give it a try the very next night.
I arrived at Eric’s house at about 8 o’clock on the 9th to give it a go. Three other birders were there as well, and we all promised to maintain our social distancing while trying for the little owl. Eric’s property is located just a bit north of Big Hungry Road near the Green River Gamelands, one of my favorite birding spots. He has tremendous habitat, though the woodlands are mostly deciduous with a few white pines and hemlocks. There are certainly no spruce-fir stands which are the preferred Saw-whet nesting habitat.
We waited a while hoping for some spontaneous calls, but with no luck. Then one of the other birders, Vicky Burke, played some tape, but still no response. Again we waited hoping for some calls. Then at about 8:40 Vicky played some more tape but still no replies. One of the other birders mentioned he was going to give up. And just then we heard 2 “toots”. We looked at each other – what was that? I mentioned that I had experience with Saw-whets responding with a single toot, so just maybe we had our bird. Then we heard 2 more toots. Then after a short break there were 3 more toots. We indeed had the Saw-whet Owl! We played some more tape but to no avail. It certainly wasn’t the long call you hear on the tapes or hear when the bird is calling spontaneously, but it was enough for a solid ID.
Many thanks to Eric Smith for inviting us to his yard and sharing his special bird!
The next day I did a bit of research to try to understand if Eric’s Saw-whet could still be a migrant or whether it was a possible breeder. I was principally trying to estimate when the last migrant Saw-whet might leave our region. In other words, was yesterday’s sighting late enough in the year that the migrants have already left, implying that the bird would be a possible breeder.
I went onto eBird to see when migrant Saw-whets might leave the area using eBird’s “Explore Species” function. This function allows you to create a bar chart for a specific region – county, state, country. The complication is that if you select a region where Saw-whets are both migrants as well as breeders, then the eBird data won’t easily separate sightings of migrants vs. breeding birds. For instance, the North Carolina bar chart has sightings for every week of the year except the 3rd week of March, with almost the same frequency each week. That means you can’t separate the summer sightings of breeders up in the mountains with wintering and migrant birds throughout the state. I then selected Henderson County and there are only sightings in 4 weeks – 1st and 3rd week of Feb., 3rd week of Nov., and now the 2nd week of April (of course Eric’s sightings from Summer 2018 aren’t included). So there’s not nearly enough Henderson County data to make any conclusions.
So next I started looking at other nearby states at roughly the same latitude, hoping to find states where Saw-whets winter and migrate, but don’t breed. I can’t use data from VA and TN because they are breeders in the mountains of both states. So I started looking a bit farther away and found these 6 states where there are no Saw-whet observations from the summer (suggesting no breeding). The last spring sightings in each state are –
·
KY
– end of March
·
AL
– 3rd week of March
·
AR
– end of February
·
DE
– end of March
·
IN
– 3rd week of April
·
KS
– 3rd week of March
With the exception of IN, Saw-whet migration in all these states appears to be over no later than the end of March. Which of course is at least two weeks before the observations of the bird at Eric’s house.
My conclusion – Eric’s bird on April 8th and 9th is not likely to be a migrant, and is instead a summering bird. That would mean it’s either already breeding, or could be a bird actively looking for a mate.
A few years ago I met a birder in SD that was managing a whole line of Saw-whet nest boxes, and had pairs nesting in many of the boxes. The species wasn’t even known to nest in SD until he put up his boxes and met with considerable success. Just as in SD, perhaps this secretive little bird may well be more common in the area than we think. And small colonies of birds might well be breeding outside what we think of as their normal range – including at or near Eric’s place.
I pulled this information from owlpages.com –
Northern Saw-whet Owls nest in old woodpecker cavities, (primarily those made by Pileated Woodpeckers or Northern Flickers) or in natural cavities. They will also take to nest boxes quite readily. Nest trees are often dead and nest heights average 4 to 6 metres above ground. Nesting occurs between March and July.
Maybe they would use nesting boxes if they were put up nearby in Henderson County.
Saw-whet Owl was #290 for my NC state list. My statebird map for Saw-whet is inserted below. States highlighted in blue are those where I’ve seen or heard this species; cross-hatched states are those where it is regular though I've yet to see or hear it. This is a wide-ranging species, though really difficult to find. So although I’m happy to have seen or heard it in 15 states, I still need it in more than 20 others.
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