Tropical Screech Owl
Choliba -Kris owls, two different color morphs
The Choliba Screech-Owl ( Megascops choliba ) is a species of the family of authentics owls. It comes in nine subspecies exclusively in South and Central America.
Appearance
With a height of about 22 centimeters, the Choliba Screech Owl is a medium-sized genus within their kind She has short ear tufts and yellow eyes. The species is remarkably polymorphic. There are gray-brown, brown and red-brown color morphs.
Distribution and habitat
The distribution of Choliba Screech ranges from Costa Rica to the far south of South America. However, they only inhabited the region east of the Andes and comes up to the north of Argentina and Uruguay before. You lack the west of Ecuador, Peru and Chile. According to current knowledge, it represents the state bird. Their habitat is open forests, savannas with scattered trees or small forest areas, with stock of trees farmland, forest edges and clearings, city parks, pastures and plantations. It avoids dense primary forest. It rarely occurs in an altitude of 1,500 meters above sea level.
Way of life
The Choliba Screech Owl is a nocturnal owl. You will meet in the dense foliage of trees or bushes. Very happy it makes use of the protection in a bush or sitting in the dense Epiphytenwachstum directly in tree trunk nearby. The song of the male is often heard even during the day. The food spectrum comprises mainly insects. These include moths, crickets, grasshoppers and beetles and spiders, and occasionally small vertebrates.
South of the equator, the males leave her vocals from August or early September resound. There the Hauptbalz falls in the month of September. They nest mainly in tree hollows. The nest consists of one to three white eggs. It breeds only the female, which is supplied by the male with food.
System
In South America, there seems to be no owl species that is very closely related to the Choliba Screech. The numerous subspecies require further investigation, according to Claus king and may be separate species. The Koepcke Screech example that bears her name in honor of the ornithologist Maria Koepcke was initially described as a race of Choliba Screech.