And just because scale is hard to tell from the photo and I have loved this fact since I learned it, this little friend is just a bit larger than a House Sparrow.

A fearsome mini-raptor! I love them.

Another fun fact is that they are one of the main predators of chickadees. When a chickadee chick-a-dees as a warning call, the number of “dees” can often be preportional to the perceived threat. In one study a chickadee “dee’d” 23 times in the presence of a pygmy owl!

#birds #birding #owls