This brown and gray streaky coloring allows the owl to camouflage with trees and hide from predators.

In addition, female double trill songs had greater internet distances in the leading portion.

[7] The western screech owl is native to Canada, United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

When attracting a female, a male brings her food and creates a series of clicking noises.

[8][5] Both mates then protect their owlets by guarding their tree cavity from dangers such as snakes, jays, and crows.

[8][10] Rather than living in traditional nests, Western Screech Owls reside in cavities in trees, banks, or cliffs.

[13][12] These nocturnal birds wait on perches to swoop down on unsuspecting prey; they may also catch insects in flight.

Their diet consists mainly of small mammals (such as mice, rats, flying squirrels, and bats), birds (such as northern cardinals and white-throated sparrows), and large insects (such as cicadas); however they are opportunistic predators, even taking to small trout, annelid worms, scorpions, crayfish, reptiles, amphibians, and smaller birds.

Although the western screech owl is slowly declining in the Pacific Northwest, the species is considered "of low conservation concern" due to their nocturnality and general ability to live alongside humans in surrounding trees.

Humans have made efforts to provide manmade shelter, such as nest boxes, for western screech owls.