Black-banded Owl
A species of Neotropical Wood-owls Scientific name : Strix huhula Genus : Neotropical Wood-owls
Black-banded Owl, A species of Neotropical Wood-owls
Botanical name: Strix huhula
Genus: Neotropical Wood-owls
Content
Description General Info
Description
The black-banded owl is medium-sized (30–36 cm), blackish all over and densely striated with horizontal, wavy, white bars. A black face mask encircle its eyes. It has a rounded head with no ear tufts, and a yellow-orange bill and feet. The tail is sooty-brown, with 4 to 5 narrow white bars and a white terminal band. Primary feathers are significantly darker than the rest of its plumage. Black bristles and feathers are found around the bill and along the leg to the base of the toes. 
Size
34 cm
Feeding Habits
Black-banded Owl preys primarily on bats and large insects including moths, beetles, grasshoppers, and cockroaches. Adults feed bats to their young, while foraging siblings capture similar prey species, with observed preferences for night-active insects and vertebrates.
Habitat
Black-banded owls are mostly found below an elevation of 500m, with rare records of them at up to 1,400 m. They inhabit various types of forests throughout the South-American landscape, mostly tropical and subtropical forests. In Ecuador they were almost exclusively recorded in the humid forest of the North-East, they were also found in the Atlantic, igapò, and terra-firme forests of Brazil, Araucaria forests, and man‐made or disturbed habitats, such as clearings, agricultural land and suburban areas.
Dite type
Carnivorous
General Info
Distribution Area
The black-banded owl is difficult to detect and is one of the least known Strigidae in South-America. Their population size has not been assessed, but it is described as a relatively common bird, although it is patchily distributed. Few sightings have been recorded, but their range extends in all likelihood from the south of Colombia to south-eastern Argentina and Brazil. The difficulty in detecting the black-banded owl is well illustrated by the fact that S. h. albomarginata has only been found a handful of times in recent years in the Atlantic forest of Brasil and Paraguay, and only twice until 2012 in the Ecuadorian Podocarpus National Park. In the region of Minas Gerais, Brazil, a black banded owl was only sighted a second time 170 years after it was first recorded. Similarly, only historical reports without supporting evidence existed in Paraguay before 1995. This species was also found to be the least abundant of large owls in the Misiones province of Argentina.
Scientific Classification
Phylum
Chordates Class
Birds Order
Owls Family
True owls Genus
Neotropical Wood-owls Species
Black-banded Owl 
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