Rufescent Screech-Owl Megascops ingens Scientific name definitions

Taxonomic note: Lump. This account is a combination of multiple species accounts originally published in HBW Alive. That content has been combined and labeled here at the subspecies level. Moving forward we will create a more unified account for this parent taxon. Please consider contributing your expertise to update this account.

Rufescent Screech-Owl is one of the most widespread species of screech-owls at mid elevations of the northern and central Andes, although it seems be curiously absent from most of the central and eastern cordilleras of Colombia. This species primarily occurs in humid montane forest, primarily on the eastern slopes of the Andes; but one subspecies, colombianus, is found in similar habitat on the western Andes of Colombia and northwestern Ecuador. Subspecies colombianus was classified for many years as a separate species ("Colombian" Screech-Owl), but the songs of birds on either side of the Andes are very similar, and so most authorities now recognize colombianus as only a subspecies of Rufescent. Rufescent Screech-Owl has two color morphs, brown and rufous. Otherwise very little is known about the biology and behavior of this widespread species.