Order
Strigiformes
Family
Strigidae
Genus
Asio
 
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Version 1.0

This is a historic version of this account.  Current version

 - Stygian Owl
 - Stygian Owl
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Stygian Owl Asio stygius

Marîa del Coro Arizmendi, Claudia I. Rodríguez-Flores, Carlos A. Soberanes-González, and Thomas S. Schulenberg
Version: 1.0 — Published January 20, 2012

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Introduction

Stygian Owl is surprisingly poorly known for such a large and widespread owl. This species is distributed throughout the Neotropics in a wide variety of habitats, but usually prefers relatively open woodlands, such as pine-oak and deciduous forests, and even can be found in urban parks. The diet of Stygian Owl includes mammals, but apparently it feeds mostly on birds; species that it preys upon range in size from the very small, such as Blue-black Grassquits (Volatinia jacarina), up to birds at least as large as small tinamous and city pigeons. In the field Stygian Owl appears attenuated, with a relatively small dark head and prominent "ear" tufts, and with dense dark streaking on the underparts.

Distribution of the Stygian Owl - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Stygian Owl

Recommended Citation

Arizmendi, M. d. C., C. I. Rodríguez-Flores, C. A. Soberanes-González, and T. S. Schulenberg (2012). Stygian Owl (Asio stygius), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.styowl1.01