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Ferruginous Pygmy Owl | Glaucidium brasilianum
Braziliaanse dwerguil | Mochuelo caburé
The Ferruginous Pygmy Owl is a small owl, active also by day, that ranges from the southern United States to Argentina. In the Caribbean it lives only on Trinidad, home to the subspecies phaloenoides, which also occurs in north-eastern Venezuela and the Guianas. Small songbirds react strongly to it and so often give its presence away.
Voice
A long series of even, whistled poip-poip-poip-poip notes, about two to three per second, both by day and at night. Also a high chattering chirr.
Recording: Juan Freile — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
15–17 cm, compact, with a round head without ear tufts, yellow eyes, short white eyebrows and a fairly long tail. Colour varies from grey-brown to warm rufous. The crown is finely streaked pale, the wing coverts carry pale spots, and the tail is dark with pale or rufous bars. On the nape are two black spots edged pale, which act as 'false eyes'. The underparts are white with rufous or brown streaks. The legs are feathered and the talons relatively large. The tail is often flicked or cocked.
Confusion species
Tropical Screech Owl Megascops choliba is larger, with short ear tufts, a grey-brown face with a dark rim and a finely marked breast, and is strictly nocturnal. The other owls on Trinidad, such as Mottled Owl Strix virgata and Spectacled Owl Pulsatrix perspicillata, are much larger.
Habitat
Forest edges, open and dry woodland, secondary forest, plantations, farmland with scattered trees and gardens in the lowlands and on lower slopes. It hunts from a perch, by day and at dusk, for large insects, lizards, small birds and mice, sometimes prey larger than itself. It nests in tree cavities and old woodpecker holes.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
In the region only as a resident on Trinidad, fairly common in the lowlands and hills. Not recorded on Tobago. Outside the region from Arizona and Texas through Mexico and Central America to Argentina and Uruguay, and on Isla Margarita.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best on Trinidad along forest edges and in farmland with trees, including by day. A group of agitated songbirds and hummingbirds around one spot in a tree often indicates a pygmy owl. The whistled series is often heard in the middle of the day too.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species adapts well to man-made landscapes, as long as trees with cavities remain.
Scientific name
Glaucidium brasilianum | (Gmelin, 1788)
Gmelin described the species in 1788 as Strix brasiliana; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Glaucidium was introduced in 1826 by Boie. Glaucidium is Greek glaukidion 'little owl' or 'owlet', a diminutive of glaux 'owl'. brasilianum means 'Brazilian', after Brazil, where the species was described. The specimen the first description was based on came from Brazil (Ceará suggested).