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Tropical Screech Owl | Megascops choliba
Cholibaschreeuwuil | Autillo tropical
The Tropical Screech Owl is the commonest screech owl in South America, ranging from Costa Rica to Argentina. In the Caribbean it occurs only on Trinidad. It is strictly nocturnal, adapts well to man-made landscapes and is heard more often than seen.
Voice
A short, purring trill followed by one or two emphatic notes, prrrrrr-kook-kook; the female sings higher. Also a bubbling boo-boo-boo-boo in courtship, and cackling and longer calls.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
21–23 cm, small, with short ear tufts that are hardly noticeable on a relaxed bird. Most birds are grey-brown, less often brown or rufous. The facial disc is pale grey with a distinct blackish rim; the eyes are yellow. The upperparts are finely spotted and streaked, with a row of white spots on the scapulars. The underparts are pale with dark streaks and fine cross-lines that together form a herringbone pattern.
Confusion species
Ferruginous Pygmy Owl Glaucidium brasilianum is smaller, without ear tufts, with a longer tail and two dark 'false eyes' on the nape, and is also active by day. Mottled Owl Strix virgata is much larger, with a round head without ear tufts and dark eyes.
Habitat
Semi-open country: secondary forest, open woodland, forest edge, cacao and coffee plantations, gardens and parks with trees, and mangrove edges. Dense, closed forest is usually avoided. It eats large arthropods such as grasshoppers, moths, beetles, spiders and scorpions, also frogs, lizards, small birds and rodents. It nests in tree cavities.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
In the region only a resident on Trinidad (subspecies crucigerus), common in the lowlands and hills. Not recorded on Tobago. Outside the region from Costa Rica through South America to northern Argentina and Uruguay.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Best after dusk along forest edges and in farmland with trees, for example around the Caroni Swamp, where the species is seen regularly. The purring song with its closing notes gives the bird away; its cryptic plumage makes it hard to spot on a branch.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The species is common and benefits from semi-open farmland, as long as trees with cavities remain.
Scientific name
Megascops choliba | (Vieillot, 1817)
Vieillot described the species in 1817 as Strix choliba; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Megascops was introduced in 1848 by Kaup. Megascops combines the Greek megas 'great' with Scops, the old genus name of the scops owls. choliba comes from chóliba, an Aragonese name for the Eurasian scops owl that Félix de Azara knew from his boyhood and gave to this South American owl. The specimen the first description was based on came from Paraguay.