The rufous-banded owl (''Strix albitarsis'') is a species of

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 ...

in the family

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

. It is found in

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology. It links basic and applied research and nurtures education and outreach activities. Specifically, the IOU organizes and funds global co ...

(IOC) places the rufous-banded owl in genus ''Strix'' and divides it into three subspecies, the nominate ''S. a. albitarsis'', ''S. a. opaca'', and ''S. a. tertia''. However, the South American Classification Committee of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

(SACC/AOS), the

Clements taxonomy ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 202 ...

, and

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) assign it to genus ''Ciccaba''. Even more confusingly, HBW agrees with the assignment of three subspecies but Clements considers the species to be

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 "unisp ...

.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, 2021Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ Retrieved August 25, 2021HBW 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 May 27, 2021

Description

The rufous-banded owl is long; two specimens weighed . It has a round head and no ear tufts. Adults have a rufous

facial disk In ornithology, the facial disc is the concave collection of feathers on the face of some birds—most notably owls—surrounding the eyes. The concavity of the facial disc forms a circular paraboloid that collects sound waves and directs those w ...

that is blacker around the orange eyes, white "brows", and white lores. The rest of the head and the upperparts are blackish brown with buffy rufous bars and spots. The tail is also blackish brown, with lighter bars. The chest is dark brown with whitish and tawny bars and spots. The rest of the underparts are silvery white and rufous brown in an ocellated (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ocellated) pattern. The juvenile is buffy with a blackish mask.Holt, D. W., R. Berkley, C. Deppe, P. L. Enríquez, J. L. Petersen, J. L. Rangel Salazar, K. P. Segars, K. L. Wood, and J. S. Marks (2020). Rufous-banded Owl (''Ciccaba albitarsis''), 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.rubowl3.01 retrieved September 8, 2021

Distribution and habitat

The rufous-banded owl is found in the Andes from northern Venezuela south to western and southern Bolivia. The IOC places the nominate subspecies in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador; ''S. a. opaca'' in Peru, and ''S. a. tertia'' in Bolivia. The species inhabits humid evergreen

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

and

cloudforest A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest, is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud cover, ...

that have a dense understory,

epiphyte An epiphyte is a plant or plant-like organism that grows on the surface of another plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water (in marine environments) or from debris accumulating around it. The plants on which epiphyt ...

s, and mosses. In Venezuela it has also been recorded in more open areas adjoining dense forest. In elevation it ranges from about .

Behavior

Feeding

The rufous-banded owl is nocturnal and becomes active soon after dark. It forages in the forest canopy and has been reported to forage from perches at the edge of forest. Its diet has not been studied but is probably insects and small mammals.

Breeding

Almost nothing is known about the rufous-banded 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 ...

. A recently fledged bird was found in late June in Colombia and a juvenile was seen in August in Venezuela.

Vocalization

The rufous-banded owl's primary vocalization is a " st series of 5–10 short, deep, guttural notes followed by brief pause and then an explosive higher-pitched note: 'hu hu hu hu hu, HOOa', or 'hu hu hu hu hu hu hu hu hu hu, HOOa'". It also calls a "series of gruff single hoots: 'rrroo rrroo rrroo rrroo...'".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the rufous-banded owl as being of Least Concern. However, it is " obably adversely affected by cutting of tsforest habitat."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q640578 rufous-banded owl Birds of the Northern Andes rufous-banded owl rufous-banded owl Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN