The austral pygmy owl (''Glaucidium nana'') is a species of

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

in the family

Strigidae The true owls or typical owls (family (biology), family Strigidae) are one of the two generally accepted families of owls, the other being the barn owls and bay owls (Tytonidae). This large family comprises 230 living or recently extinct species ...

. It is found mainly in central and southern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, but also in some parts of southern

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The austral pygmy owl has sometimes been treated as a subspecies of ferruginous pygmy owl (''Glaucidium brasilianum'') but DNA studies and other data support its being a species in its own right. It is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 August 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved August 24, 2021Norambuena, H. V. (2020). Austral Pygmy-Owl (''Glaucidium nana''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.aupowl1.01 retrieved September 6, 2021 Austral_Pygmy-owl

Description

The austral pygmy owl is long. Males weigh and females . It has gray-brown and red morphs and intergrades between them. Adults of both morphs have a pale grayish brown face with dark flecks, whitish "brows" over pale yellow eyes, and black "false eyes" on the nape. The gray-brown morph's upperparts are dark grayish brown with whitish dots of variable size and shape. The tail is also dark grayish brown with narrow buffy bars. The throat is white, the sides of the upper breast dark grayish brown, and the underparts off-white with dark grayish brown streaks. The red morph has a similar pattern but reddish brown replaces the dark grayish brown.

Distribution and habitat

The austral pygmy owl is found from approximately

Valparaíso Province Valparaíso Province () is one of eight provinces of the central Chilean region of Valparaíso (V). Its capital is the coastal city of Valparaíso (pop. 275,982). Administration As a province, Valparaíso is a second-level administrative division ...

in Chile and

Neuquén Province Neuquén () is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west. It also me ...

in western Argentina south to the tip of

Tierra del Fuego Tierra del Fuego (, ; Spanish for "Land of Fire", rarely also Fireland in English) is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South America, South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of the main is ...

. In Chile it ranges in elevation from sea level to . It inhabits a variety of landscapes from city parks and farmland with scattered trees to deciduous forests and thickets, evergreen shrublands, temperate and southern beech (''

Nothofagus ''Nothofagus'', also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere, found across southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Guin ...

'') forests, and Patagonian scrub/steppe.

Behavior

Feeding

The austral pygmy owl is primarily diurnal but is also active at night. It is a solitary hunter that sallies from perches to capture insects, birds, mammals, and reptiles. It has been documented taking birds almost double its own weight.

Breeding

The austral pygmy owl usually nests in a tree cavity but has also been documented using holes in earthen banks. They lay a clutch of three to five eggs between September and November, and the female alone incubates them.

Vocalization

The austral pygmy owl has five primary vocalizations. Pairs maintain contact with "a whistle with 6 to 7 notes/sec described as ''huj-huj-huj-huj-huj-huj''". Their territorial call is "a sharp trill described as ''truie-truie-yi-yi''". Nestlings make "soft metallic chirps ''trigigigirrr'' or ''trigigick''". Both sexes make a courtship call, "a whistle...described as ''tiririi-tiririi'', and an undefined call rendered as ''diud'' or ''diuh''".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the austral pygmy owl as being of

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

. Though its population has not been quantified, the species is "reported to be the most abundant owl in Chile". In agricultural areas it is persecuted because its nocturnal calls are interpreted as an ill omen.

References

External links

Austral Pygmy Owl videos
on the Internet Bird Collection * (for

) with RangeMap
Austral Pygmy Owl photo gallery
VIRE
Photo-High ResPhoto-Medium Res
prba.com {{Taxonbar, from=Q1274057 austral pygmy owl Birds of Chile Birds of Patagonia Birds of Tierra del Fuego austral pygmy owl Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Fauna of the Valdivian temperate forests