Choco Screech-Owl

Identificazione

The Chocó screech owl is 20.5 to 27 cm (8.1 to 10.6 in) long; two specimens weighed 106.7 and 121.5 g (3.76 and 4.29 oz). It has gray and rufous color morphs and many individuals' plumages are intermediate between the extremes. The gray morph has a grayish white facial disc with blackish bars and a faint black edge, indistinct whitish brows above yellow to red-orange eyes, and short but distinct "ear" tufts. The upperparts are brownish gray mottled with black and buff. The folded wing shows irregular white spots along the margin. Its chin is white and the rest of the underparts white to buffy white with narrow black bars and buffy to gray mottling. The rufous morph is rufous brown above with much less mottling than the gray morph and the undersides are shades of brown.

Tassonomia

The Chocó screech owl's taxonomy has undergone numerous changes. It has variously been treated as embedded in or a subspecies of the original Otus guatemalae and then as a subspecies of O. vermiculatus when that was split from O. guatemalae. In the early 2000s, all of the New World members of Otus were assigned to Megascops. As of 2019, the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), the North and South American Classification Committees of the American Ornithological Society (AOS), and the Clements taxonomy treat it as a separate species, Megascops centralis.However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World treats it as being embedded within M. vermiculatus vermiculatus, the nominate subspecies of vermiculated screech owl.<p>The Chocó screech owl is monotypic.

Nome scientifico

Megascops centralis

Autorità

(Hekstra, 1982)

Ordine

Strigiformi

Famiglia

Strigidae

Genere

Megascops

Areale e habitat

The Chocó screech owl is found from central Panama into northwestern Colombia and in a narrow band of western Ecuador. It inhabits the interior and borders of humid primary and secondary forest in lowlands and foothills. In elevation it ranges as high as 1,575 m (5,167 ft) in southwestern Ecuador but is usually found below 1,000 m (3,300 ft).

Comportamento

L'assiolo del Chocó si trova solitamente negli strati intermedi della foresta, ma il suo comportamento di caccia non è stato documentato. Si presume che si nutra di grandi invertebrati e piccoli vertebrati, come gli altri assioli del genere Megascops.<p>La stagione riproduttiva sembra andare da gennaio a marzo, in base all'unico nido trovato e al ritrovamento di una femmina con un uovo parzialmente formato. Il nido era in una cavità naturale nel tronco di un albero morto. Sul fondo vi erano corteccia, polvere di legno, foglie secche, borre, resti di prede e frammenti di guscio.<p>Sembra possedere un solo canto, a differenza della maggior parte degli altri assioli, che hanno un canto primario territoriale e uno secondario di corteggiamento. È descritto come «un breve trillo a ritmo rapido», che inizia su un tono costante e poi scende. Il volume varia nel corso dell'emissione.