The buff-fronted owl (''Aegolius harrisii'') is a small

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 ...

. It is found in widely separated areas in every South American country except

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas. ...

and Suriname.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

Taxonomy and systematics

The buff-fronted owl was described by the American ornithologist

John Cassin John Cassin (September 6, 1813 – January 10, 1869) was an American ornithologist from Pennsylvania. He worked as curator and Vice President at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences and focused on the systemic classification of the Acad ...

in 1849, and given the binomial name ''Nyctale harrisii''. The binomial commemorates the American ornithologist Edward Harris. The buff-fronted owl is the only member of genus ''Aegolius'' in South America. Its closest relative is the

northern saw-whet owl The northern saw-whet owl (''Aegolius acadicus'') is a species of small owl in the family Strigidae. The species is native to North America. Saw-whet owls of the genus ''Aegolius'' are some of the smallest owl species in North America. They can ...

(''A. acadicus'') of Canada and the U.S., and the other two extant members of the genus are found there and in Mexico. It has three subspecies, the nominate ''A. h. harrisii'', ''A. h. dabbenei'', and ''A. h. iheringi''. The last of these has been suggested to be a separate species.Holt, D. W., R. Berkley, C. Deppe, P. L. Enríquez, J. L. Petersen, J. L. Rangel Salazar, K. P. Segars, K. L. Wood, A. Bonan, and J. S. Marks (2020). Buff-fronted Owl (''Aegolius harrisii''), 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.bufowl1.01 retrieved September 8, 2021

Description

The buff-fronted owl is long and weighs . It is compact and has a short tail and a large blocky head without ear tufts. Its facial disks are buff with a black surround and distinctive black patches above its greenish yellow eyes. The nominate subspecies' forehead and hindneck are yellowish buff and the rest of the head and upperparts chocolate brown. The tail is blackish and has two white bars and a white tip. Its chin has a small brown patch and the rest of the underparts are yellowish buff. ''A. h. dabbenei'' has darker upperparts and a cinnamon tinge on the underparts. ''A. h. iheringi'' is also darker above and its underparts are a deeper orange.

Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of the buff-fronted owl is found discontinuously in the Andes from Venezuela south to southern Peru. ''A. h. iheringi'' is also found discontinuously, in Bolivia, Paraguay, eastern Brazil, and in southern Brazil, northeastern Argentina, and northeastern Paraguay. ''A. h. dabbenei'' is found in northwestern Argentina, and birds observed in western Bolivia might also be this subspecies. The subspecies of birds found locally on the

tepui A tepui , or tepuy (), is a table-top mountain or mesa found in South America, especially in Venezuela and western Guyana. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran S ...

s of southern Venezuela and Guyana is not known. The buff-fronted owl inhabits a variety of landscapes including open humid forest, dry forest, forest edges, subtropical rainforest, and human-altered areas with fruit trees and palms. In the Andes it ranges between and elsewhere between about .

Behavior

Feeding

The buff-fronted owl's hunting behavior and diet have not been studied. It has been recorded taking insects, rodents, birds, and other small vertebrates.

Breeding

Almost nothing is known about the buff-fronted owl's breeding phenology. A nest with three eggs was found in Brazil in March; it was in a dead palm, in what appeared to be an abandoned parrot nest cavity. Another nest was in a hollow tree.

Vocalization

The male buff-fronted owl's song is "a rapid, wavering trill, 'frurururururururu. Dependent fledglings give a "hissing, raspy 'cheet' begging call".

Status

The IUCN had originally assessed the buff-fronted owl as being Near Threatened but in 2004 downlisted it to being of

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

. It is generally thought to be rare but is probably overlooked. Its population is unknown and believed to be stable.