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Striped Owl - BirdForum Opus

Revision as of 03:24, 2 August 2009 by Njlarsen (talk | contribs) (edit misc)
Photo by Rogerio Araújo Dias
Location: Brasilia, Brazil
Pseudoscops clamator

Identification

30-38cm. Ear tufts are well developed and projected to the sides or to the top of the head. White black-rimmed facial disc, dark brown eyes and black bill. Its upperparts are yellowish-brown to tawny–ochre, striped with grimy brown. Below it is buff or white, with dark brown stripes. Short wings and a long tail, the flight feathers and tail have alternated buff and grimy brown bands. Tarsi and toes are feathered.

Distribution

Southern Mexico to Panama, and from northern South America (including Tobago but not Trinidad) to Uruguay and north Argentina, east of the Andes.

Taxonomy

This species has in the past been placed in genera Rhinoptynx and Asio.

Subspecies:

  • A. c. clamator
  • A. c. forbesi
  • A. c. midas
  • A. c. oberi only found in Tobago

Habitat

Open or semi-open grassland and savannas with scattered trees, small groves and bushes, open marshland with bushes, pasture and agricultural land, as well as in wooded suburban areas. The subspecies oberi in Tobago seems more strictly limited to forest and forest edges, and possibly threatened by forest fragmentation in at least part of its range.

Behaviour

Nocturnal.

The diet includes spiny rats, rice rats, cavies, bats and opossums, doves, grassquits, flycatchers, thrushes, house sparrows and tinamous. Other foods include large insects and a few reptiles.

2-4 eggs are laid in nests on the ground in long grass and dense bushes. The female alone incubates for approximately 33 days.

Vocalisation

<flashmp3> Striped Owl Begging Regua 18h10m39s17sep2008.mp3</flashmp3>
Listen in an external program

Begging call. Recording by Andrew Whitehouse

External Links

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