Birds of Mexico

○ ← STRIGIFORMES: Strigidae (Owls) →

Genus: Megascops (7 species, 22 worldwide)

Genus Megascops, Screech Owls, are small owls, around 24 cm., which stay hidden during the day, and are usually only heard at night.


Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio floridanus) Green Cay Nature Center, Delray Beach, Florida, USA
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Bearded Screech Owl (Megascops barbarus) San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico
Photograph by Nigel Voaden © All Rights Reserved.


Pacific Screech Owl (Megascops cooperi) Hacienda Tenorio-Cañas, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Photograph by Jorge Obando Gutierrez © Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved.


Pacific Screech Owl (Megascops cooperi cooperi) Playa Panama, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Photograph by Jorge Obando Gutierrez © Copyrighted, All Rights Reserved.


Middle American Screech Owl (Megascops guatemalae) Costa Rica Comes in brown and rufous morphs. Vermiculated means marked by wavy lines.
Photograph by Tom Friedel © All Rights Reserved.


Middle American Screech Owl (Megascops guatemalae) Yucatan, Mexico Rufous (not brown) morph.
Photograph by Edward Boyd © All Rights Reserved.

In 2023 the former Vermiculated Screech Owl was lumped with this species until they figure out the taxonomy of these similar screech owls.


Western Screech Owl (Megascops kennicottii) United States
Photograph by Dominic Sherony Copyright and usage info This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file for non-commercial purposes under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one.


Balsas Screech Owl (Megascops seductus) ENDEMIC Miacatlan, Morelos, Mexico
Photograph by Carl Giometti © All Rights Reserved.


Whiskered Screech Owl (Megascops trichopsis aspersus) Carr Canyon, Arizona,
Photograph by George Scott Photography © All Rights Reserved.

© Tom Friedel - All Rights Reserved, except for images and data otherwise noted.       Colombia       Panama       Ecuador       Costa Rica       Mexico
Experimental sites:       Peru       Venezuela       The World       Brazil       Bolivia
Really Experimental sites:       Guyana       Cuba