All species › Owls › Owls › Cinnamon Screech Owl
Cinnamon Screech Owl | Megascops petersoni
Kaneelschreeuwuil | Autillo canelo | Corujinha-canela
The Cinnamon Screech Owl is a small, almost uniformly cinnamon-brown screech owl of the cloud forest on the eastern slope of the Andes in southern Ecuador and northern Peru. The species was only described in 1986. It resembles the Rufescent Screech Owl, but is smaller and usually lives higher.
Voice
A rapid series of short, hollow notes, repeated at intervals, mainly at dusk and at night.
Recording: Jonas Nilsson — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
21–23 cm, with short ear tufts, brown eyes and pale buff eyebrows. The plumage is warm cinnamon-brown with fine dark vermiculation and a row of pale spots on the scapulars. The facial disc has a narrow dark rim. The underparts are slightly paler, with fine dark shaft streaks and faint cross-barring. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Rufescent Screech Owl Megascops ingens is larger, less uniformly coloured and usually lives lower. Cloud-forest Screech Owl Megascops marshalli lives further south, in central and southern Peru, and has a broad black rim to the facial disc and large, dark-edged white spots on the underparts. Foothill Screech Owl Megascops roraimae has yellow eyes and lives lower, in foothill forest. Long-whiskered Owlet Xenoglaux loweryi is much smaller and lacks ear tufts.
Habitat
Humid cloud forest rich in mosses and epiphytes, roughly between 1700 and 2500 m. It lives in the understorey and middle layers of the forest. It hunts at night, mainly for large insects. As far as known it nests in tree cavities; its breeding biology is poorly studied.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Ecuador on the eastern slope of the Andes in the south, including Zamora-Chinchipe. In Peru on the eastern slope in the north, in Cajamarca, Amazonas and San Martín. There are a few unconfirmed reports from Colombia. Absent from Bolivia and the Galápagos.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Around Abra Patricia in northern Peru and in the cloud forest of Tapichalaca in southern Ecuador, at night along forest trails, where the song can be heard after sunset. By day it roosts hidden in dense vegetation.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a small range and depends on undisturbed cloud forest, which is shrinking along the eastern slope through deforestation.
Scientific name
Megascops petersoni | (Fitzpatrick & O'Neill, 1986)
Fitzpatrick & O'Neill described the species in 1986 as Otus petersoni; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Megascops was introduced in 1848 by Kaup. The genus name comes from Greek megas, 'great', and skōps, a small owl (scops owl). The species name honours Roger Tory Peterson (1908–1996), American field ornithologist, artist and field guide author. The specimen the first description was based on came from Northern Peru.