Super small owl

[Kessel23]

Not a poultry predator but today while I was trying to catch an escaped wood duck I found this tiny bird laying in the snow, dead. I picked it up and looked closer, it was a super small owl. Underneath it was a half eaten mouse. The owls breast was eaten and I'm assuming a bigger owl species must have nailed it while it was eating the mouse it just caught. Our woods has more great horned owls and barred owls than I can count.

 

[StinkyAcres]

Looks like a Northern Saw-whet.

 

[CluckerFamily]

Possibly a screech owl

 

[StinkyAcres]

Possibly a screech owl

It's not an Eastern Screech-Owl. Screech-Owls have barred flight feathers and more barring on the tail.

 

[Kessel23]

Looks like a Northern Saw-whet.

Yes that's what another user told me. It's about the size of a dove.

 

[StinkyAcres]

Are there color variants of the Screech owl ?

Yes, there are red and gray morphs of Eastern Screech-Owls. Western Screech-Owls are only gray, however.

 

[StinkyAcres]

I also call it a pygmy owl.

Pygmy-Owls are a different species. There is the Northern and the Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl in the U.S.

 

[rockymountain]

I also call it a pygmy owl. I have seen them as well. I would bag the owl and mouse up and put in the garbage. The mouse might of ingested poison, which could of killed the owl, which something else came along and ate on it.

 

[sourland]

It's not an Eastern Screech-Owl. Screech-Owls have barred flight feathers and more barring on the tail.

Are there color variants of the Screech owl ?

 

[Folly's place]

Check with your DNR, someone there may want to examine it, especially with the mouse.
Never have seen one here like that!
Mary