Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

About the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl

The Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl is a tiny, long-tailed owl - about the size of a bluebird - rusty brown with a streaked breast, a white-spotted crown, and piercing yellow eyes. On the back of the neck a pair of black "false eyes" helps deter attacks from behind. It lacks ear tufts and often perches in plain view.

Unlike most owls it hunts by day and dusk, dropping on small birds, lizards, and large insects, and it will take prey its own size. The call is a long, monotonous series of hollow toots, and imitating it famously pulls songbirds into a scolding mob - they know this little owl is a real threat. Nesting is in tree and cactus cavities.

In the United States the species hangs on only in far South Texas and southern Arizona. The Texas birds live in mesquite-ebony woodland and live-oak mottes north of the Rio Grande Valley, where the population is small, local, and declining with habitat loss.