The Saw-whet Owl – the smallest owl in eastern North America, weighing less than a stick of butter – is now a poster child of owl migration in North America.  Much of what we understand about Saw-whet Owl migration has been discovered in the past few decades by banding owls during their autumn migration. Bird banding involves fitting lightweight numbered bands on a bird’s leg so that individuals can be identified upon later encounters.  When a banded bird is recaptured, it can be connected with the data collected at previous encounters.  It is in this way – through banding, data collection, and data sharing – that we have pieced together complex, fascinating, and crucially important details about bird ecology and migration.  Each year trained and permitted WBRG technicians catch and band hundreds of Northern Saw-whet Owls during their autumn southbound migration.  WBRG is part of a continent-wide network of owl banders, called Project Owlnet, which facilitates this communication and data-sharing among researchers.