Owls | Strigidae

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The facial disc is round and the eyes are large, with an iris ranging from yellow to almost black; several species carry two erectile feather tufts on the head, which have nothing to do with hearing but do break up the head's outline. The inner toe is shorter than the middle toe and the middle claw is smooth. In this guide the family numbers 41 species in ten genera, from the Long-whiskered Owlet (Xenoglaux), one of the smallest owls in the world, found only in a small area of cloud forest in northern Peru, to the horned owls (Bubo) of more than a kilo. Screech owls (Megascops) and pygmy owls (Glaucidium) are numerous, with species in every altitudinal zone from the Amazonian lowlands to the treeline; the pygmy owls also hunt by day and carry two dark spots on the nape that act as a second pair of eyes, and the Peruvian Pygmy Owl lives in the dry forest and cactus scrub along the west coast. Large species such as Spectacled Owl and Crested Owl live in lowland forest at the foot of the Andes, and the Buff-fronted Owl (Aegolius) in cloud forest. The voice consists of low, far-carrying notes, trills or whistled series that hold the territory, and is usually the first thing by which the species is known. Nesting is in a tree hole, an old nest of another bird, on a cliff ledge or, as in the Burrowing Owl of the coastal desert and the puna, in a burrow in the ground; the female incubates and broods, the male brings in the food.