Aegolius acadicus

The northern saw-whet owl is a species of small owl in the family Strigidae. The species is native to North America. Saw-whet owls of the genus Aegolius are some of the smallest owl species in North America. They can be found in dense thickets, often at eye level, although they can also be found some 20 ft (6.1 m) up. Saw-whets are often in danger of being preyed upon by larger birds of prey. The northern saw-whet owl is a migratory bird without any strict pattern.

Aegolius acadicus

Kameron Perensovich · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
northern saw-whet owlPBDB
Sits inside
AegoliusPBDB
Diet
carnivore, insectivorePBDB, for Strigidae
Life habit
volantPBDB, for Strigidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
Vision
well-developedPBDB, for Strigiformes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Strigidae

Time the record covers

At most 210 thousand years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 210 ka and 0 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Pleistocene — about 7 of 7 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 7 occurrences213 ka–189 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences189 ka–166 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences166 ka–142 ka Mya — about 0.2 occurrences142 ka–118 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences118 ka–95 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence95 ka–71 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence71 ka–47 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence47 ka–24 ka Mya — about 1 occurrence24 ka–0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences710 ka0 Mya

7 occurrences of Aegolius acadicus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

7 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Aegolius acadicus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Aegolius acadicus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

400 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 7 sites for Aegolius acadicus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

7 references

Each of the 7 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Aegolius acadicus

Credit
Kameron Perensovich
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAegolius through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Gmelin 1788)