This is bird note.

For such a small owl, the northern sawwet has a lot to say, and a lot of ways to say it.

Male sawwets weigh about as much as a stack of $7.5 coins, comparable to an American Robin,

and they send out at least 11 different calls.

When agitated or threatened, the sawwet gives what ornithologists describe as a decidedly

uncanny, high-pitched meow, or a harsh and startlingly loud staccato high-pitched bark.

Males give toot toot advertising calls from late January through May.

In part, the rate of calling is determined by the nighttime temperature.

There's also a positive correlation between call rate and the amount of old growth forest

near the heart of a bird's territory.

And perhaps to keep other sawwets out of a food-rich territory, males may toot more frequently

in years when their favorite prey, white-footed mice and deer mice, are plentiful.

So if the toot tooting gets monotonous, keep listening.

You may hear something truly hair-raising.

For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.