Northern pygmy owls are serially monogamous; pairs stay together for one breeding season that occurs between April and June. Early in the breeding cycle males establish and defend a territory. These birds usually nest in a tree cavity and will often use old woodpecker holes. The female lays 2 to 7 eggs, typically 4 to 6, and incubates them about 28 days. During the breeding cycle, the female incubates the eggs, broods the young, and guards the nest. The male hunts, making food deliveries approximately every 2 hours. The male must feed his mate, the young, and himself. The male hunts from dawn to dusk as the young near fledging, and during the first weeks after they leave the nest. The owlets are born helpless and blind but grow quickly and fledge at about 30 days of age. They leave the nest (fledge) by making an initial flight that may be a short hop to a nearby branch, or an explosive burst into an adjacent tree where they land by grasping whatever branch is first contacted, sometimes clinging upside-down. Owls at this stage are sometimes called "branchers" for their clinging, dangling, and climbing behaviors. The second day after fledging, the owlets gradually climb and fly upward into the forest canopy, where they spend their first few weeks, at times perched "shoulder-to-shoulder" with their siblings, begging for food. Around 20 to 30 days after fledging the young become completely independent and reach reproductive maturity by the first year of age.