FERRUGINOUS PYGMY-OWLIn both Querétaro and Chiapas Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls, GLAUCIDIUM BRASILIANUM, were common and conspicuous. Sometimes their unceasing hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo... whistle- call -- about three hoos each second -- carried on so long you sort of wished they'd stop. The species is here, too, also hooting, but not as interminably as sometimes they do. Wednesday morning along the road to Mexil one perched on a limb beside the road in plain view about 30 feet away, allowing the photo shown below:
In western North America the closely related Pygmy Owl, belonging to the same genus Glaucidium, is very similar. Both owls are surprisingly aggressive for their size, are often diurnal (appear during the day) have longish tails and two black, white-outlined patches on their back necks resembling eyes when the bird is seen from behind. They differ in the Ferruginous being more reddish and having different tail barring, and in their hooting. Easterners may not have a feeling for how small an owl should be to be considered a pygmy. The Ferruginous is about 7 inches long (18 cm), which makes it smaller than the 8.5-inch American Robin, and only a third the length of the 21-inch Great Horned Owl. Ferruginous Pygmy-Owls are distributed from southern Texas and the US desert Southwest to Argentina. |
