Tawny-bellied screech owl (Megascops watsonii)

PNYC - El Paujil, Pasco, Peru. Aug 28, 2020

comments (8)

Ferdy Christant

Lion

How on earth did you find it? Posted 4 years ago
1. Thibaud Aronson
  
  Lion
  
  Ha! Well, I went out after dinner and walked down the main trail. There was very little activity, as had been the case on my other nocturnal outings in that spot, only a distantly calling Spectacled owl. Still, reading my bird book, this species was mentioned as the most common Megascops in the lowland forests. So, I tried my luck and played a bit of song. Soon enough, I heard one calling back!
  hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo HOO HOO HOO HOO HOO hoo hoo hoo hoo...
  Unfortunately, the song was coming from the other side of a large river. I was pleased to have a least recorded its song, but there was no way of getting across so I moved a bit farther down the trail. But just a few minutes later, I heard it calling again, this time on my side of the river! I backtracked and got to a point where I could hear it calling maybe 10 or 15 meters off the trail. But as I'm sure you've experienced, even with powerful lights, tropical forests have that sort of incredible density at night, and it's exceedingly hard to scan the foliage for birds. Unsurprisingly, I couldn't see anything. So I moved maybe 30 meters away and played another snippet of song, in the hopes of drawing it to a more exposed spot, to no avail. So this time I moved in the other direction, trying to get another angle of view from a bit farther away, but then the owl fell quiet. And suddenly I had this weird feeling (it's actually happened to me a couple times now). I turned around, and there she was, perched on a low branch just above the trail, not ten meters from me!
  The batteries on my lamps were running a bit low and the light was not so powerful anymore, so it was a bloody struggle holding both lamps aiming at the owl with the same hand that supported the end of my lens, while getting a photo, but she was very cooperative and I managed a few shots before she moved to another, higher branch, where I could still see her calling but she was no longer in my camera's reach.
  As always with owls, one encounter like that makes up for 10 fruitless nocturnal outings :) Posted 4 years ago
2. 1. Ferdy Christant
    
    Lion
    
    What a story, and what a commitment, definitely well deserved! Posted 4 years ago
  2. 1. Thibaud Aronson
      
      Lion
      
      Haha thanks! Posted 4 years ago

DR_M_Z

Lion

Thibaud, another of your extraordinary work!! Deeply impressed Posted 7 months ago
1. Thibaud Aronson
  
  Lion
  
  Thank you!
  I had another great sighting of this species last year
  https://ebird.org/checklist/S159794463 Posted 7 months ago

nightjar6

Lion

Loved your narration. Left as if I was with you. :) Posted 7 months ago
1. Thibaud Aronson
  
  Lion
  
  Many thanks! Posted 7 months ago

The Tawny-bellied screech owl

The tawny-bellied screech owl is a species of owl in the family Strigidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

Info 2 0

Similar species: Owls

Species identified by Thibaud Aronson