The tawny-browed owl (''Pulsatrix koeniswaldiana'') 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 Strigidae) are one of the two generally accepted families of owls, the other being the barn owls (Tytonidae). This large family comprises 230 living or recently extinct species in 24 genera. The typical ow ...

. It is found in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The tawny-browed owl may form a superspecies with band-bellied owl (''Pulsatrix melanota''). It has been suggested that they are

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organ ...

but they have different morphology and vocalizations. 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 "unispec ...

.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, 2021

Description

The tawny-browed owl is about long. Males weigh and females . It has a brown facial disk surrounded by ochre, a white chin patch, and creamy "brows" over chestnut-brown eyes. Its breast, upperparts, and tail are dark chocolate brown, and the tail has white bars. The belly is buff and the rest of the underparts are light ochre. The juvenile is initially almost entirely white and gradually attains adult plumage over several years.Holt, D. W., R. Berkley, C. Deppe, P. L. Enríquez, J. L. Petersen, J. L. Rangel Salazar, K. P. Segars, K. L. Wood, E. de Juana, and J. S. Marks (2020). Tawny-browed Owl (''Pulsatrix koeniswaldiana''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.tabowl1.01 retrieved September 7, 2021.

Distribution and habitat

The tawny-browed owl is found in Brazil from

Espírito Santo Espírito Santo (, , ; ) is a state in southeastern Brazil. Its capital is Vitória, and its largest city is Serra. With an extensive coastline, the state hosts some of the country's main ports, and its beaches are significant tourist att ...

state south to northern Rio Grande do Sul and the immediately adjacent areas of eastern Paraguay and northeastern Argentina. It inhabits humid

tropical forest Tropical forests (a.k.a. jungle) are forested landscapes in tropical regions: ''i.e.'' land areas approximately bounded by the tropic of Cancer and Capricorn, but possibly affected by other factors such as prevailing winds. Some tropical fo ...

, open woodland, and forest dominated by

Araucaria ''Araucaria'' (; original pronunciation: .ɾawˈka. ɾja is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. There are 20 extant species in New Caledonia (where 14 species are endemic, see New Caledonian ''Araucaria ...

evergreens. In elevation it ranges from sea level to about .

Behavior

Feeding

The tawny-browed owl is nocturnal. It hunts in the canopy from a perch, taking small mammals, birds, large insects, and probably other small vertebrates.

Breeding

The tawny-browed owl's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

has been poorly studied. Its nesting season has not been determined. The clutch size is usually two, laid in a tree cavity, and incubated by the female. Both parents care for fledged young.

Vocalization

The male tawny-browed owl makes a " w, descending sequence of guttural, ventriloquial 'brrr brrr brrr brrr' or 'ut ut ut ut ut' notes, accelerating and weaker at heend", to which the female responds with a higher pitched call.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the tawny-browed owl as being of Least Concern. Its population size has not been determined, and it is thought to be "relatively rare, or at best uncommon". It occurs in some protected areas, but its

Atlantic Forest The Atlantic Forest ( pt, Mata Atlântica) is a South American forest that extends along the Atlantic coast of Brazil from Rio Grande do Norte state in the northeast to Rio Grande do Sul state in the south and inland as far as Paraguay and t ...

habitat has been much reduced and fragmented.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q974890 tawny-browed owl Birds of the Atlantic Forest tawny-browed owl Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxa named by Arnoldo de Winkelried Bertoni Taxa named by Moisés Santiago Bertoni