The Pacific pygmy owl or Peruvian pygmy owl (''Glaucidium peruanum'') is a small "

typical owl The true owls or typical owls (family Strigidae) are one of the two generally accepted families of owls, the other being the barn owls (Tytonidae). This large family comprises 230 living or recently extinct species in 24 genera. The typical owl ...

" in subfamily Surniinae. It is found in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar language, Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechuan ...

, and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world'' Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip xls zipped 1 MBretrieved 27 May 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The Peruvian pygmy owl was first described as a species by Claus König, a German ornithologist, in 1991. Until then it had been treated as a subspecies of the widespread ferruginous pygmy owl (''G. brasilianum''). König separated the two primarily by their vocal differences; their ranges do not overlap.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 31 January 2022. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved February 1, 2022Schulenberg, T. S. and H. Batcheller (2020). Peruvian Pygmy-Owl (''Glaucidium peruanum''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.pepowl1.01 retrieved March 8, 2022 The Pacific pygmy owl is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

Description

The Pacific pygmy owl is long. Males weigh about and females about . In addition to being heavier, females also have slightly longer wings and tails than males, but both sexes have the same plumage. The species has gray, brown, and rufous color morphs, with the first two predominating. The upperparts of gray morph adults are grayish brown with buff streaks on the forecrown and buff spots on the crown and nape. An incomplete white "collar" and oval black spots on the neck give the appearance of eyes. The shoulders and back have whitish spots. The tail is also grayish brown, with up to seven whitish bars across it. The throat is white, the sides of the breast grayish brown, and the rest of the underparts whitish with rufuous streaks. The other morphs replace the grayish brown with dark brown or rufous respectively. In addition, the bars on the rufous morph's tail are rusty brown or orange-buff and the streaking on the underparts is more diffuse than on the other two morphs. In all morphs the eye is lemon yellow and the bill and feet yellow-green. Juveniles have essentially the same plumage as adults but their crown has no streaks or spots.

Distribution and habitat

The Pacific pygmy owl is found on the western slope of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

from Manabí, Pichincha, and Los Ríos provinces in north-central Ecuador south through Peru into Chile as far as the

Antofagasta Region The Antofagasta Region ( es, Región de Antofagasta, ) is one of Chile's sixteen first-order administrative divisions. The second-largest region of Chile in area, it comprises three provinces, Antofagasta, El Loa and Tocopilla. It is border ...

. It also is found in several semiarid valleys within the western Andes. In Ecuador it usually occurs from sea level to of elevation but is locally found as high as . In Peru it occurs up to and in Chile up to . The species inhabits a variety of moist to arid landscapes including

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, a ...

and

riparian forest A riparian forest or riparian woodland is a forested or wooded area of land adjacent to a body of water such as a river, stream, pond, lake, marshland, estuary, canal, sink or reservoir. Etymology The term riparian comes from the Latin word ...

, arid lowland and montane scrublands, agricultural areas with large trees, and gardens in built-up areas.

Behavior

Movement

The Pacific pygmy owl is a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The Pacific pygmy owl hunts both day and night, generally from the forest's mid-level to the canopy. Its diet has not been defined in detail but is known to include birds, small mammals and other vertebrates, and large

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a Segmentation (biology), segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and Arth ...

Breeding

Almost nothing is known about the Pacific pygmy-owl's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

, although it is assumed to be like that of other members of genus ''Glaucidium''. It is known to nest in tree cavities and has been recorded breeding in old nests of the

pale-legged hornero The pale-legged hornero (''Furnarius leucopus'') is a species of bird in the family Furnariidae. It includes the Pacific hornero (''F. leucopus cinnamomeus'') and the Caribbean hornero (''F. leucopus longirostris''), which often are considered s ...

(''Furnarius leucopus'') and in holes in walls and river banks.

Vocalization

The Pacific pygmy owl's song has been described as "a series of rapidly delivered ''pü'' notes" and also as "rapid...rising hoots: ''poop'poop'poop'poop....''." It also makes "chirping and thin warbling notes." Vocal differences enable it to be separated from the similar

Yungas pygmy owl The Yungas pygmy owl (''Glaucidium bolivianum''), is a species of owl in the family Strigidae. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru. Taxonomy and systematics The Yungas pygmy owl has been treated as a subspecies of Andean pygmy owl ...

(''G. bolivianum'') where their ranges overlap.

Status

The IUCN has assessed the Pacific pygmy owl as 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. Th ...

. It has a large range, and though its population size is not known it is believed to be stable. No specific threats have been identified. It is considered common in Ecuador and fairly common to common in Peru. "It tolerates human presence, as long as cavities are available for nesting, and even occurs in town plazas and in gardens."