The status of the Boreal Owl (Aegolius funereus) in the western United States has been summarized by Kuchel and Garrott (Western Birds 6:21-23, 1975) and Johnson and Hudson (Auk 93:195-196, 1976). Summer month sightings in Montana consist solely of a family group observed by David Shea at Waterton Lake, near the Canadian border in July 1973 (Skaar, Montana bird distribution, Bozeman, Montana, 1975), and there is only one early fall record, a specimen collected near Bozeman in September 1964 (Skaar, Birds of the Bozeman latilong, 1969).
It was of interest therefore to find a Boreal Owl on 12 September 1976 while I was working on a wildlife inventory and habitat typing project for the Deerlodge National Forest. The site was in a dense stand of Engelmann Spruce (Picea engelmannii) surrounding Albicaulis Lake, Powell County, in the Flint Creek Range about 27 km west of Deerlodge, Montana, and about 320 km south of Waterton Lake. The elevation is 2440 m.