Small as in 6-7.5 inches from head to tail. It's diurnal, meaning it usually hunts at dawn and dusk. It nests in holes, though it doesn't make its own holes; it uses empty woodpecker holes and/or old stumps. And they're tough. Floyd Scholz says in his book, Owls, that "Often they kill their next meal only to find that it is too big and heavy to carry off to a perch" (pg. 163).
When they're relaxed, pygmy owls look like puff balls with long tails, and it seems to me from the photos I've seen that they usually look like they're a little bit pissed off.
Pygmy owls have a set of "false eyes," feather patterns at the backs of their heads. The only photo I've found that shows them clearly is this one, by Anne Elliott:
The following video is a clip from Oregon Public Broadcasting's Oregon Field Guide, featuring a biologist tracking pygmy owls in a most unexpected place: Forest Park, a green space just at the edge of Northwest Portland.
Inexpertly and mercilessly over-doodled from this photo by Dominic Sherony.
One more thing of note: Spokane Audubon Society's newsletter is The Pygmy Owl, and I am the new editor.
