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© Sedgwick County Zoo, credit: Bill Chambers

Spectacled Owl

Pulsatrix perspicillata

Physical Characteristics

  • These owls are dark brown with a yellow-ocher belly, a white patch on the front of the neck and a dark brown belt across the breast. Narrow white "spectacles" around their yellow eyes give them their name.
  • Size of average adult
    • height: 17 - 18 inches
    • weight: male = 1 - 1.5 pounds, female = 1.5 - 2 pounds

Diet

  • Wild: bats, birds, insects, crabs and frogs

Behavior

  • Not strictly active at night
  • Prefer to live near water
  • Have a long rapid tapping call
  • Nest in tree holes
  • Reproduction
    • clutch size: 1 - 2 eggs
    • chicks leave the nest before they can fly well

Environmental/Global

  • Habitat: tropical rainforest
  • Distribution: Southern Mexico south to Argentina
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