This species uses an array of vocalizations, such as hoots, whistles, screeches, screams, purrs, snorts, chitters, and hisses. When a mottled owl hoots, it is often territorial and associated with courting. The males have a lower pitched hoot than females. When faced with a threat, owls produce clicking noises with their tongues. As part of a mating display, owls have the ability to clap their wings in flight.
Mottled owls produce an array of calls. Their territorial call consists of a series of deep hoots, sounding like "bru bru" and "bu bu bu" or cowooawoo or keeooweeyo. They also have a whistled screech. Mottled owls have been observed to have an enlarged voice box which allows them to produce low-pitched notes for their size.
Owls have keen hearing and vision in low-light situations. They lack color vision.
Communication Channels: visual ; acoustic
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
This widespread species is not globally threatened. Strix virgata are considered common in many habitats and can be seen largely in protected areas.
US Migratory Bird Act: no special status
US Federal List: no special status
CITES: appendix ii
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: no special status
There are no known adverse affects of Strix virgata on humans.
Mottled owls have been studied by scientists and research has been published on their breeding behavior. They also help control some rodent and insect pest populations.
Positive Impacts: research and education; controls pest population
This species is a generalist predator, and potentially impacts many prey populations.
Strix virgata individuals feed on a diverse diet including large insects such as beetles, grasshoppers, and cockroaches. They also feed on small mammals, birds, snakes, lizards, salamanders, and frogs. They are considered opportunistic feeders as they may be attracted to artificial lights. Mottled owls primarily hunt from perches which can be found along a forest edge.
Mottled owls have keen vision, hearing, and maneuverable flight, contributing to their success as predators. Although they lack color vision, these owls can rotate their heads to see in different directions. These owls also have sensitive ears that allow them to pinpoint sound sources in total darkness. Still, their ranges of hearing are not wide and contain deaf spots. Their wing feathers have adapted to dampen sound during flight, so they can approach their prey without being heard.
Animal Foods: birds; mammals; amphibians; reptiles; insects
Primary Diet: carnivore (Eats terrestrial vertebrates, Insectivore )
Strix virgata is widely distributed throughout the Nearctic and Neotropics, from northern Mexico to Brazil and Argentina.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic ; neotropical
Inhabiting elevations between sea level and 2500 meters, mottled owls are often quite abundant within their range. Their habitats are extensive and diverse; they can live in a wide variety of forest and thicket edge, tropical rainforest, dry thorn forest, tropical lowland forest, pine-oak woodland, and humid evergreen jungle. They can also live in areas with scattered trees, often close to towns and villages.
Range elevation: 0 to 2500 m.
Habitat Regions: terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: forest ; rainforest
There is no information available regarding the lifespan of this species.
Strix virgata individuals are medium-sized owls with brown eyes. They are mostly dark except for light brown facial markings. Mottled owls have yellow-grey to blue-grey bills and their toes are greyish-yellow. Their dorsal markings are much less noticeable than the vertical streaks on their chest and throat. They look larger than they are because of their thick feathers.
In owls, females are generally larger than the males. This evolution of a reversed size dimorphism has been explained in many different ways. Researchers measure body mass during the breeding season, wing length, tail length, bill length, tarsal length, and foot span. Female mottled owls weighed significantly more than males and have significantly longer wing chords. Strix virgata has the most noticable dimorphism yet documented among owls.
Range mass: 175 to 320 g.
Range length: 355 to 280 mm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: female larger
Owls are at the top of the food web. They have no major predators.
Mottled owls are monogamous, neither female nor male have any involvement with other nesting birds besides their mate.
Mating System: monogamous
Strix virgata have smaller clutches than ecologically similar or closely related species. This species usually lays 1 to 2 eggs between February and May. Mottled owls usually nest in holes of trees, tops of broken off palm and occasionally in empty nests of other birds.
Breeding interval: Mottled owls breed once yearly.
Breeding season: The breeding season occurs between February and May.
Range eggs per season: 1 to 2.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; fertilization ; oviparous
Females incubate eggs while males find food and bring it back to the nest. Both males and females care for the young.
Parental Investment: pre-hatching/birth (Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Male, Protecting: Female); pre-independence (Provisioning: Male, Protecting: Female)
The mottled owl (Strix virgata) is a medium-sized owl found in Central and South America from Mexico to Brazil and Argentina. The head and back are mottled brown and the underparts whitish, with vertical bars on the chest and throat. The eyes are dark and the head is round and they do not have ear tufts. They are territorial and found in dry forests and jungles at altitudes of up to 2,500 m (8,200 ft) above sea level.
The mottled owl was described by the American ornithologist John Cassin in 1849 and given the binomial name Syrnium virgatum.[3][4] In 1999, Wink and Heidrich transferred it to the genus Strix, but this is still contested by some authorities.[5]
The mottled owl is a medium-sized owl with adults reaching 280 to 355 mm (11.0 to 14.0 in) in length. Females are considerably larger than males; the mottled owl shows the greatest degree of sexual dimorphism of any species of owl.[6] The crown, nape and back are mottled in several shades of darkish brown, the facial disc is pale brown and the throat, breast and belly are off-white with distinctive vertical brown streaks. The large eyes are brown, the beak is greyish-yellow or greyish-blue, and the legs and feet are greyish-yellow. There is a darker form of the bird with a buff breast and belly. Mottled owls produce a range of calls which include a hoot used in maintaining territory boundaries, and various whistles, screeches and hisses.[6][7]
The mottled owl is native to Central and South America. Its range extends from Mexico south to Argentina and Brazil and it is found at elevations up to about 2,500 m (8,200 ft). It inhabits a variety of wooded habitats including rainforest, woodland verges, dry thorn forest, pine/oak woodland and plantations and also open countryside with scattered trees. In some parts of its range it is common and it is often found close to human habitations.[6]
The mottled owl is nocturnal and spends the day in dense vegetation where it may be mobbed by other birds. Its large eyes are adapted for sight at low levels of light, and its hearing is also acute. It is a predator and at night often perches on a branch beside a glade or at the edge of woodland on the lookout for prey. When it detects a small moving object, it swoops down from its perch on silent wings and pounces on its target, which may be a small mammal, a bird, reptile or amphibian or a large beetle, grasshopper or other insect/arthropod.[6][8] It is known to prey on bats.[9]
The mottled owl breeds between February and May in Colombia and in September to November in Argentina. It usually nests in a hole in a tree but may also choose an empty nest built by another species. One or usually two white eggs are laid and incubated by the female and both parents care for the young.[7]
The mottled owl has a very wide range and the number of individual birds has been estimated to be somewhere between five hundred thousand and five million. It is listed by the IUCN as being of "Least Concern" on the basis that, though its numbers may be decreasing slightly, they are not doing so at such a rate as would justify putting the bird in a more vulnerable category.[1]
The mottled owl (Strix virgata) is a medium-sized owl found in Central and South America from Mexico to Brazil and Argentina. The head and back are mottled brown and the underparts whitish, with vertical bars on the chest and throat. The eyes are dark and the head is round and they do not have ear tufts. They are territorial and found in dry forests and jungles at altitudes of up to 2,500 m (8,200 ft) above sea level.
