Cloud Forest Pygmy Owl

Copyright: monacoeye • Santa Lucia, Ecuador, Feb 2011 • Do not copy without permission

Bird name: Cloud Forest Pygmy Owl
Latin: Glaucidium nubicola
Other: Cloud-forest Pygmy-Owl • Mochuelo ecuatoriano (Es)
Family: Strigidae • Owls
Range: Colombia and Ecuador
Similar: Andean Pygmy Owl

The guide I was with in Santa Lucia was convinced that the bird above was a rare Cloud-forest Pygmy-Owl. On my first morning’s birding in Ecuador, no less. We had just left the Santa Lucia Lodge and were observing some of the regular warblers and tanagers when the guide homed in on a great commotion of birds in a couple of trees.

He became very excited, believing this to indicate the presence of an owl, and scanned the branches for some time trying to find the bird. Eventually he did locate the small Pygmy Owl, which was sitting calmly on a bough with warblers, tanagers and flycatchers all around, mobbing it.

On examination he believed it to be a Cloud-forest Pygmy Owl, which he had only previously heard once, and never seen. It’s a rare bird, classed Vulnerable on the IUCN 3.1 list, with an estimated population of only a few thousand individuals. It has been recorded in Pichincha.

But although I’m happy to defer to more learned opinion, the photo itself is unlikely to be conclusive proof, as the Andean Pygmy-Owl, Glaucidium jardinii, although scarce, is much more common with larger range, and looks very similar, with longer tail and more extensive pale spotting or barring on back, sides of chest and flanks. So unless an expert weighs in, the bird pictured could probably be either Cloud-Forest or Andean.

The Andean Pygmy-Owl is generally found above 2000m and the Cloud-forest Pygmy-Owl below 2000m - the photo was taken at about 1900m altitude.





Andean or Cloud Forest Pygmy-Owl ?