Bicycling home from an errand today, I came upon a pygmy tragedy on the side of the road. A northern pygmy owl lay dead. Not too long ago a vehicle hit it, and it died. It’s very sad, but the owl was so beautiful, I couldn’t let it just lie on the side of the road. I brought it home to give it a proper burial.

Northern pygmy owls have fake eyes on their back to make it appear that they are looking at predators who sneak up from behind.

Tens of millions of birds are killed by vehicles every year. A USDA Forest Service paper, estimates that automobiles kill 80 million birds a year in the USA. I haven’t found a study on how many birds bicycles kill every year, but I would guess that it might be a handful at most. Ride your bicycle, save a bird.