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Barred Owl (1 Viewer)

Richard Klim

Richard Klim

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Barrowclough, Groth, Odom & Lai 2011. Phylogeography of the Barred Owl (Strix varia): species limits, multiple refugia, and range expansion. Auk: in press. [abstract]
"S. v. sartorii of Mexico was separated from the remaining taxa of S. varia by S. fulvescens of Central America. Consequently, the Barred Owls of Mexico are a species-level taxon."

  • Holt et al 1999 (HBW 5).

  • Mazur & James 2000. Barred Owl (Strix varia). BNA Online 508.
    "S. v. sartorii (Ridgway, 1873): Scarce (infrequently reported) resident of Mexico along montane Pacific slope (Durango south to Guerrero) and interior montane areas along Atlantic slope from Puebla, Veracruz, and Oaxaca (Peters 1940, Howell and Webb 1995). Toes feathered basally as nominate varia, but coloration darker, with stripes on underparts black to blackish brown and markings on upperparts more numerous and whiter; larger than nominate varia, with relatively larger bill and feet (see measurements in Ridgway 1914)."

  • Steve Howell, 2009: ""Obvious" and "new" species now (if not when I wrote the Mexico guide) include... the Mexican population of Barred Owl (whose voice I finally recorded this year),..."
 
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Steve Howells assertion about voice being important to night birds seems so obvious that it makes me wonder why so many taxa of night birds ( owls and nightjars ) are "lumped" together when , vocally, they seem to be poles apart. Perhaps it's just a consequence of 'birding' being mainly a visual thing ( except at night and in thick forest and................ ).

chris
 
chris butterworth said:
Steve Howells assertion about voice being important to night birds seems so obvious that it makes me wonder why so many taxa of night birds ( owls and nightjars ) are "lumped" together when , vocally, they seem to be poles apart. Perhaps it's just a consequence of 'birding' being mainly a visual thing ( except at night and in thick forest and................ ).

chris
Click to expand...

I think it to a large extent is a result of:
1 it is difficult to listen to the voice of a study skin in a museum
2 field worthy recording equipment being fairly recent and online repositories of sound recordings being even more recent. And if you record a sound at night, can you prove which animal made that sound?

But to return to the observation by Howell: the same is said quite strongly in Koenig's Owl book, and he combines it with the observation that voice in owls seems to be genetically determined without much in the way of learning.

Niels
 
Hi All,

This is an interesting and not too surprising conclusion. I'm curious to know how close the sartorii birds are to Fulvous Owl compared with non-Mexican forms of Barred Owl. My reason for wondering relates to fairly recent field work carried out in central Oaxaca, Mexico (within the range of sartorii Barred Owls). Until quite recently, the voice of this population was undescribed (having been heard by a few birders, but not recorded). I've not heard Steve Howell's recording, but Rich Hoyer did some playback in central Oaxaca using Fulvous Owl and had an owl fly in and give vocalizations consistent with Fulvous Owl (some 200+ miles west of the known range of Fulvous Owl). His recording is published on Xeno-Canto (XC46405). It is remarkably similar to Jesse Fagan's Fulvous Owl recording XC42718 from Antigua, Guatemala, similar to other Fulvous Owl recordings, and unlike Barred Owl recordings elsewhere. So the obvious question would be, is sartorii a distinct species or is it a subspecies of Fulvous Owl rather than Barred Owl?

Chris
 

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Odom & Mennill

Odom & Mennill (in press). Inconsistent geographic variation in the calls and duets of Barred Owls across an area of genetic introgression. Auk. [abstract]
 
Cinereous Owl

Richard Klim said:
Nathan Pieplow & Andrew Spencer, Earbirding.com, 7 Jun 2015: Mexico's Mystery Owl.
Click to expand...
IOC World Bird List v5.3 (Draft).
www.worldbirdnames.org/updates/update-diary/
www.worldbirdnames.org/updates/english-names/
2015 June 12: Change English name of Strix sartorii to Cinereous Owl
"Change the English name of Strix sartorii to Cinerous Owl (from Mexican Barred Owl) because: (1) It is not closest to (Northern) Barred Owl (by voice or genetics), and using Mexican Barred Owl suggests it is, and requires needlessly modifying "The" Barred Owl to Northern Barred Owl. (2) As English names, Northern Barred Owl and Mexican Barred Owl are easily mis-associated with Northern Spotted Owl and Mexican Spotted Owl, 2 subspecies that are commonly given these English names, which could be confusing, not to mention wrongly reinforcing the misperception the 2 "Barred Owls" are similarly closely related. (3) Cinereous refers to the distinctive gray plumage tones, akin to its closest relative Fulvous Owl. Thus the North American species (north of Mexico) can be kept as Spotted and Barred (plumage patterns), whereas the southern taxa can be Fulvous and Cinereous (plumage tones). This seems like a pleasing symmetry, makes sense, and is the path of least resistance, before people start commonly using Northern Barred Owl" (S. Howell 6/12/2015)
Click to expand...
 
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