Did you get to see us release the northern saw-whet owl at the Owl Moon Raptor Festival this past weekend? If you did, you may have been surprised to see that the owl landed in a nearby tree and stuck around for a while, in spite of the crowd beneath it. Why would it do this? No, it wasn’t living out its dream of being in a modeling shoot. Animals respond to stress in different ways. You may have heard of fight or flight reactions. There actually is a third common reaction: freeze. For small owls like saw-whets and screech owls, their natural reaction is to rely on their camouflage. They hold as still as they can, sometimes making their eyes look like slits, until the danger has passed. As the festival crowd thinned out, the saw-whet looked around, then departed.
More about saw-whet owls: these tiny owls are sometimes described as having cat-like facial features. They are more common than you might expect, though they are very secretive birds. Saw-whets pass through Maryland in migration season. In our area there are a number of saw-whet banding stations, where these birds get a quick health check and measurements taken before being sent on their way.
Release photos courtesy of Kaleigh Keesee
