TYPICAL OWLS: Family Strigidae [ 345 ] 



Tillamook Counties are of this subspecies, and birds seen by Jewett at 

 various times from Portland are also of this form. From the skins avail- 

 able, we conclude that the Coast Pygmy Owl is the breeding form inland 

 to the inner base of the Coast Ranges and merges with californicum in the 

 Willamette and Umpqua Valleys. 



California Pigmy Owl: 



Glaucidium gnoma californicum Sclater 



DESCRIPTION. "Adults: Very small, under parts white, thickly streaked with dark 

 brown; sides brownish, indistinctly spotted with lighter; upper farts dark, slaty gray, 

 olive brown, or dark rusty brown; head specked with white; tail blackish or brownish, 

 barred with white. Young: like adult, but top of head plain gray. Length: 6.50-7.50, 

 wing 3.40-4.00, tail i.4o-z.8o." (Bailey) Nest: In old woodpecker holes. Eggs: 

 4 to 6, white. 



DISTRIBUTION. General: California, except humid coast, through central Oregon 

 and Washington to British Columbia. In Oregon: Permanent resident of Cascades, 

 wooded parts of Klamath and Lake Counties, and Rogue River Valley extending 

 into Umpqua and Willamette Valleys where it passes into the coast form. (See 

 Figure 8.) 



MOST OF THE early Oregon records apply to the California Pygmy Owl. 

 Newberry (1857) reported it as rare in the Cascades, and Bendire (1892.) 

 reported nesting birds from Corvallis that probably refer to this form. 

 Since that time there have been numerous references to Pygmy Owls, 

 mostly from territory occupied by this form. We have numerous speci- 

 mens, including a pair of birds and six eggs taken from an old wood- 

 pecker hole in an aspen tree at Fort Klamath on May 2.1, 1930. The eggs 

 are now in Braly's collection and the skins in Jewett's. In addition, we 

 have skins that are strictly comparable to these breeding birds from 

 Gold Hill (March 2.4), the Umpqua Valley, Oakland (December 6, Janu- 

 ary 8, February 2.4), Dillard (December 13), Ten-mile (Douglas County, 

 November i), and Eugene (March 17). There is also an adult fall bird 

 (September 16) from Netarts in the Jewett collection that is undoubtedly 

 of this form and can only be considered a straggler that has wandered 

 from the normal range of the race. Skins from Warner Valley (February 

 10) and Redmond (January 13) seem to be intermediate between this and 

 G. g. pinicola but closer to californicum. 



These little owls generally hide in the foliage of evergreen trees so 

 that they are difficult to detect. As a matter of fact they are much more 

 common than the casual observer would expect, and their peculiar call 

 notes are a familiar sound in the twilight hours. They are usually ob- 

 served when by accident they select a conspicuous perch, such as a tele- 

 phone pole, the topmost branch of a thick shrub, or the spire-pointed tip 

 of some small conifer where the tiny owls appear as conspicuous spots 

 in the gathering twilight. 



