Bird
Bird
Tropical Screech-Owl
Megascops choliba
The Tropical Screech-Owl is a small, well-camouflaged owl whose trilling, frog-like song is a familiar night sound in gardens, forest edge, and plantations across Trinidad.
The Tropical Screech-Owl is a small, well-camouflaged owl whose trilling, frog-like song is a familiar night sound in gardens, forest edge, and plantations across Trinidad. Often heard far more often than seen, it is one of the more approachable owls for those learning to spot nocturnal birds.
Identification
A small owl around 20 to 24 cm tall, with mottled grey-brown or rufous-brown plumage providing excellent camouflage against tree bark, prominent ear tufts, and yellow eyes. Colour morphs range from grey to rufous. Its song is a distinctive short trill, often likened to a bouncing ball or a soft frog-like purring, delivered at dusk and through the night.
Behaviour
Roosts by day pressed against a tree trunk or in dense foliage, relying on cryptic plumage to avoid detection, and becomes active at dusk to hunt large insects, spiders, small reptiles, and occasionally small birds or rodents from low perches. It is territorial and vocal, particularly in the early breeding season, and nests in natural tree cavities or old woodpecker holes.
Status in T&T
Common and widespread in Trinidad in forest, forest edge, plantations, and gardens with mature trees, from lowlands to mid-elevation forest. Not threatened, and tolerant of moderately disturbed and semi-urban habitats. It is protected as native wildlife under the Conservation of Wildlife Act.
