Pacific Screech-Owl

The Pacific screech owl is a medium-sized member of Megascops and has prominent "ear" tufts and bright yellow eyes. The nominate subspecies is 23 to 26 cm (9.1 to 10.2 in) long and weighs 145 to 175 g (5.1 to 6.2 oz). Its facial disc is pale gray with a white and blackish border. Its crown and upperparts are a pale tawny gray with dusky and black vermiculation. Its closed wing shows two pale lines. It has paler off-white underparts with a darker herringbone pattern. M. c. lambi is 20 to 22 cm (7.9 to 8.7 in) long and weighs 115 to 130 g (4.1 to 4.6 oz). It is colored like the nominate with the addition of dark bars and streaks on the crown.

The more northern subspecies of Pacific screech owl, M. c. lambi, is found only on the Pacific slope of Oaxaca, Mexico. The nominate subspecies is found from eastern Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico, south along the Pacific slope through Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua into northwestern Costa Rica. In the southern part of its range it can also be found on the upper Caribbean slope. The Pacific screech owl inhabits a wide variety of vegetation communities. They include swamp forest and mangroves, arid and semi-arid woodland and scrub, open country with scattered trees and cacti, and secondary forest. In elevation it ranges from sea level as high as 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in Oaxaca and 1,300 m (4,300 ft) in Costa Rica but is usually found much lower.

The Pacific screech owl is nocturnal and crepuscular. It hunts in clearings and the edges of woodland from a low perch and captures prey by pouncing or sallying. Its diet is mostly large insects but also includes other arthropods such as scorpions and small vertebrates like birds and flying squirrels.