Long-whiskered Owlet

Identification

The long-whiskered owlet is one of the world's smallest owls. It is 13 to 14 cm (5.1 to 5.5 in) long; three individuals weighed an average of 48 g (1.7 oz). Only the heavier Tamaulipas pygmy owl and the lighter elf owl are of a similar diminutive length. The sexes are alike. Their face has a dull cinnamon brown ruff around the eyes and buffish white "eyebrows". The ruff's outer feathers are long and thin and project beyond the face, the feature which provides the species' English name. Their crown, nape, and upperparts are brown with tiny dull black bars. Their tail is dull brown. Their wing is mostly brown with some white spots; their primaries and primary coverts are black with variable amounts of pale brown and white. The lower part of their nape has large white spots and the sides of their neck have small whitish spots. Their throat is buffish white, their upper breast brown with tiny black bars, and the rest of their underparts brown with increasing amounts of white among the black which give a salt-and-pepper appearance. Their iris is amber, their bill greenish gray with a yellowish tip and pinkish gray cere, and their legs and feet pink.

Taxonomy

The long-whiskered owlet was described in a 1977 paper from three specimens collected in August 1976. Though the species somewhat resembles several other small owls, the authors assigned it to a new genus, Xenoglaux, a combination of the Greek words xenos ("strange") and glaux ("owl"). They applied the specific epithet loweryi in recognition of George H. Lowery, Jr., for "his influence upon us and upon neotropical ornithology". A few more specimens were collected in succeeding years, and the bird was audio recorded after capture in a mist net in 2002. The first sighting in the wild was in 2007.<p>The original authors proposed that the long-whiskered owlet was most closely related to the owls of genus Glaucidium and somewhat more distantly to the North American elf owl (Micrathene whitneyi), "but generically clearly separable from both of these taxa". An extensive molecular phylogenetic study of the owls published in 2019 confirmed that the species' closest relatives are the elf owl and the collared owlet. At the time of that study the latter was named Glaucidium brodiei but the study also revealed that it did not belong in that genus. The study authors suggested restoring it to an earlier genus Taenioptynx and most taxonomic systems adopted the change.<p>The long-whiskered owlet is the only member of its genus and has no subspecies.

Scientific name

Xenoglaux loweryi

Authority

O'Neill & Graves, GR, 1977

Order

Strigiformes

Family

Strigidae

Genus

Xenoglaux

Range and habitat

The long-whiskered owlet is found in the Andes of northern Peru. All of the known locations are near the site where it was discovered, Abra Patricia (a pass on the border of Amazonas and San Martín departments) and further west in Amazonas at La Esperanza, in the Cordillera Colán, and in a few other sites. It inhabits humid montane forest and elfin forest. The original authors described the area at Abra Patricia as fog-shrouded and heavy with moss, bromeliads, epiphytes, and other vegetation above a forest floor with a thick layer of humus. It contained dense thickets of Chusquea bamboo, palms, and tree ferns. As of 2010 it was known at elevations between 1,900 and 2,400 m (6,200 and 7,900 ft); since then additional discoveries extended its upper limit to 2,600 m (8,500 ft). Lane and Angulo suspect that the species may be more widespread than known because similar habitat is found elsewhere in the general region, and they suggest extensive surveys be made in new areas.

Migration

Resident species

Behavior

The long-whiskered owlet is a year-round resident throughout its range.<p>The long-whiskered owlet's diet and feeding behavior have not been described. However, one specimen's stomach contained insect remains.<p>Nothing is definitely known about the long-whiskered owlet's breeding biology. Specimens collected between late July and October showed no physiological signs of active breeding, so it is hypothesized that the species breeds between November and June.<p>What is thought to be the long-whiskered owlet's primary song is "a single, slightly hoarse, hoot, rising then falling slightly in pitch: whoOOo...apparently given in a series of 4–6 notes/min." "It may also give a rapid, low-pitched trill, which is rarely heard."

Conservation

Population trend

stable