Whetsaw

Weight

77.4 g – 131 g

Length

Not recorded

Lifespan

8.41 years – 17.5 years

Diet

Carnivore

Main food

Not recorded

Habitat

forest

Egg incubation

27 days

Young per litter or clutch

5.5

Age at maturity

12 months

Litters or clutches a year

1

Lifestyle

Perching

Migration

Migratory

Conservation status

Not recorded

Countries on record

Not recorded

Not recorded

No conservation assessment is recorded for this species in our sources. That is not the same as being safe: it has not been matched to an assessment.

1. kingdomAnimalia
2. phylumChordata
3. classAves
4. orderStrigiformes
5. familyStrigidae
6. genusAegolius
7. SpeciesAegolius acadicus (J. F. Gmelin, 1788)

Synonyms Nyctale kirtlandii, Strix acadica

Catalogue of Life

LC, Least Concern

Boreal owl

Aegolius funereus

Strigidae

B

Buff-fronted owl

Aegolius harrisii

StrigidaeNo free photo yet

U

Unspotted saw-whet owl

Aegolius ridgwayi

StrigidaeNo free photo yet

B

Bermuda saw-whet owl

Aegolius gradyi

StrigidaeNo free photo yet

CompareWhetsaw vs Boreal owlWhetsaw vs Buff-fronted owlWhetsaw vs Unspotted saw-whet owlWhetsaw vs Bermuda saw-whet owl

• An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
  Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
• AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits · CC BY 4.0 · v1
  Oliveira, B.F., São-Pedro, V.A., Santos-Barrera, G., Penone, C. & Costa, G.C. (2017) AmphiBIO, a global database for amphibian ecological traits. Scientific Data 4: 170123. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.123. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.4644424.v5
• AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds · CC BY 4.0 · v7
  Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
• Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
  Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
• Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
  Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
• EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
  Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1
• Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
• Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
  Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

@misc{whetsaw_2026,
  title = {Whetsaw (Aegolius acadicus)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/whetsaw},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}