Mottled Owl (Ciccaba virgata centralis)
24 January 2009, Rancho Naturalista, Costa Rica
Seeing this medium-sized owl involved a treacherous hike down a steep,
slippery, muddy trail. The bird was deep in shadowy vegetation so getting
a picture without too many branches while keeping the bird in focus was a
digiscoping challenge.
This species is sometimes called the Mottled Wood-Owl but that name is now
generally reserved for "Strix ocellata" of India. Many authors (e.g. HBW)
merge the genus Ciccaba into Strix, but the AOU and Clements have retained
this bird and several related species in Ciccaba based on differences in
its external ear structure.
This species is polymorphic with light and dark forms. This is a dark
morph bird with the underparts washed with brown.
Seven subspecies are recognized and one or two of the South American races
have been recognized as separate species in the past. This is the race C.
v. centralis is southern Middle America. It averages smaller and more
barred on the back than other races.
As in most owls, males are smaller than females. We judged this individual
was probably a male.
Panasonic Lumix LZ5 / Nikon FieldScope 3 / 30X WA hand-held (no adapter)