Caching Behavior by Wintering Northern Saw-Whet Owls, Aegolius acadicus

Authors

  • Arnold Devine 18 South Street, Plymouth, Connecticut 06782
  • Dwight G. Smith Biology Department, Southern Connecticut State University, New Haven, Connecticut 06515

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22621/cfn.v119i4.191

Keywords:

Northern Saw-whet Owl, Aegolius acadicus, caching behavior, Connecticut

Abstract

We observed 16 instances of caching behavior by Northern Saw-whet Owls in southern Connecticut between 30 October and 29 March over a 23-year period 1982 to 2004. Caches consisted of a single prey item in 13 instances and two prey items in three instances. Prey was cached either directly beneath the owl or from 5-28 cm distant, always on the same branch on which the owl was roosting. Observations of cached prey marked in the morning suggested that it was consumed after 14:30 in the afternoon of the same day. Such a delay indicated a true cache rather than delayed feeding.

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 119 No. 4 (2005)

Section

Notes

License

Copyright for Canadian Field-Naturalist content is held by the Ottawa Field-Naturalists' Club, except for content published by employees of federal government departments, in which case the copyright is held by the Crown. In-copyright content available at the Biodiversity Heritage Library is available for re-use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence. For usage of content at the BHL for purposes other than those allowed under this licence, contact us.

 

To request use of copyright material,  please contact our editor, Dr. Dwayne Lepitzki: editor -at- canadianfieldnaturalist -dot- ca