Ferruginous pygmy-owls can be heard calling more frequently around sunrise and sunset. Sounds that they make include whistled hoot and took noises, and high yelping twitters. Male calls are lower in tone than females. Males give territorial-advertisement calls and females vocalize through chitters.
Communication Channels: acoustic
Perception Channels: visual ; tactile ; acoustic ; chemical
US Migratory Bird Act: protected
US Federal List: endangered
CITES: appendix ii
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
Because of their small population size, the land that these owls live on is protected from development and construction of new houses and buildings through the Endangered Species Act.
There are no known benefits that ferruginous pygmy-owls provide to humans.
These owls are predators of a variety of species that share the same habitat.
Glaucidium brasilianum are opportunistic predators with diverse diets. They feed mostly on insects, but also on birds, reptiles, amphibians, and small mammals. They are diurnal and feed mostly during sunrise and sunset. In order to kill birds and some lizards the ferruginous pygmy-owl bites just behind their prey's head, while other lizards are swallowed whole. Insects are usually decapitated and only the soft body parts of them are eaten. Mammals are eaten piece by piece. Specific examples of what these owls feed on inlude grasshoppers and crickets(Orthoptera), scorpions (Arachnida), six lined race runners (Cnemidophorus sexlineanius), four-lined skinks (Plestiodon tetragrammus), and Texas spotted whiptails (Cnemidophorus gularis).
Animal Foods: birds; mammals; amphibians; reptiles; insects; terrestrial non-insect arthropods
Primary Diet: carnivore (Eats terrestrial vertebrates, Insectivore , Eats non-insect arthropods)
Ferruginous pygmy owls are non-migratory and are found in the southwestern United States, Central America, and South America.
Biogeographic Regions: nearctic ; neotropical
Ferruginous pygmy-owls live in a variety of habitats throughout the Americas. They are found in cold temperate lowlands, subtropical, and tropical areas. They can be found in habitats ranging from deserts to rainforests.
Range elevation: 1616 (high) m.
Habitat Regions: temperate ; tropical ; terrestrial
Terrestrial Biomes: desert or dune ; savanna or grassland ; forest ; rainforest
There is little information to be found on the lifespan of ferruginous pygmy-owls.
Glaucidium brasilianum are very small and reach a size of only about 6 inches tall. They have round heads with black eyespots on the back, no ear tufts, and yellowish eyes. Adults often have white eyebrows, and white streaks on their heads. The body of the owl is reddish-brown in color with white streaks. The long tail is also reddish-brown. Their wings often have white streaks as well. The underparts are white. Males and females look very similiar to one another, but the females are slightly larger and more reddish in coloration. Juveniles look like adults, but their heads are often grayer and their eye spots lighter. Ferruginous pygmy-owls are similar to northern pygmy-owls, Glaucidium gnoma , but northern pygmy-owls are spotted rather than streaked, have whiter tails, and different vocalizations.
Range mass: 62.4 to 76.5 g.
Range length: 16.5 to 18 cm.
Range wingspan: 37 to 41 cm.
Other Physical Features: endothermic ; homoiothermic; bilateral symmetry
Sexual Dimorphism: female larger; sexes colored or patterned differently
In response to predators such as hawks, owls, snakes, and raccoons, ferruginous pygmy-owls either go into a vertical position and move their tail back and forth, or maintain an errect position with feathers close to their body. Nestlings sometimes spread out their wings and puff themselves up.
Known Predators:
Ferruginous pygmy-owls are monogamous, and usually form pairs in their first fall after hatching.
Mating System: monogamous
Ferruginous pygmy-owls nest in natural cavities of trees, stumps, or cactuses (depending on what is available). The cavities that they nest in are often the made by woodpeckers (Piciformes). Males give territorial advancement calls (monotone whistles) to attract females and repel other males. Female respond with chitter calls, bending forward, and raising their tail 45 to 60 degrees in order to expose the vent and allow copulation.
Breeding interval: Ferruginous pygmy-owls breed once a year. Eggs are layed in April or May.
Range eggs per season: 3 to 5.
Average time to hatching: 28 days.
Range fledging age: 27 to 30 days.
Average time to independence: 8 weeks.
Key Reproductive Features: iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate); sexual ; oviparous
Incubation usually lasts 23 to 28 days. Incubation of the eggs and brooding of the young is done by the females. Males are the providers of food for the first few weeks. They bring back food that the female tears up and feeds to the young. After about 3 weeks both parents go out to retreive food for their offspring. Young begin fledging between 21 and 29 days after hatching, and remain dependent on parents for about 8 weeks.
Parental Investment: pre-hatching/birth (Protecting: Female); pre-weaning/fledging (Provisioning: Male, Female, Protecting: Female); pre-independence (Provisioning, Protecting)
The ferruginous pygmy owl (Glaucidium brasilianum) is a small owl that breeds in south-central Arizona and southern Texas in the United States, south through Mexico and Central America, to South America into Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina.
In Central America and South America, it is the most widely distributed pygmy owl and is probably one of the most numerous owl species in those areas. It is found in a wide range of semi-open wooded habitats.
The ferruginous pygmy owl was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other owls in the genus Strix and coined the binomial name Strix brasiliana.[3] Although not cited directly, Gmelin's description was ultimately based on the "Cabure" that had been described in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae.[4] The ferruginous pygmy owl is now placed with 28 other small owls in the genus Glaucidium that was introduced in 1826 by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie.[5][6] The genus name is from Ancient Greek glaukidion meaning "little owl" or "owlet". It is diminutive of glaux meaning "owl".[7]
Thirteen subspecies are recognised:[6]
Trinidad, as well as other localities, have endemic subspecies of the Glaucidium brasilianum owl. Recent genetics work has found substantial differences in ferruginous pygmy owls from different regions and members of the northern ridgwayi group are sometimes considered a separate species, Ridgway's pygmy-owl (Glaucidium ridgwayi).
The ferruginous pygmy owl is small, typically 15 cm (5.9 in), and stocky with disproportionately large feet and talons. The crown has elongated white/buff streaks, the wing coverts have white spots, and the underparts are heavily streaked white. There are prominent white supercilia above the facial disc. There are two dark spots on the nape, often termed "false eyes" by birders. Otherwise, its overall color is highly variable, ranging from grey-brown with a black-and-white barred tail to rich rufous with a uniform rufous tail. Sexes are similar with females slightly larger and often more reddish. The flight is often undulating in motion, similar to that of many woodpecker species.
The call is a whistled hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo, usually in E flat. It is easily imitated, and is used by birdwatchers to attract small birds intent on mobbing the pygmy owls.
It can be readily located by the small birds that mob it while it is perched in a tree (up to 40 birds of 11 species have been recorded mobbing one owl).
This species is crepuscular, but often hunts by day. It hunts a variety of birds, lizards, other reptiles, amphibians,[8][9] mammals, and insects. Specific examples of what these owls feed on include grasshoppers, crickets, scorpions, six-lined racerunners, four-lined skinks, Texas spotted whiptails, creamy-bellied thrushes, pale-breasted thrushes, eared doves, and mice.[10][11]
The breeding season is from late winter to early spring. It is a cavity nesting bird (tree and columnar cactus cavities), laying 1-7 white eggs. Incubation is 28 days, with 27–30 days to fledging.
The northernmost subspecies, G. b. cactorum, commonly called the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl, was a listed Endangered species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. It This protected it in south-central Arizona from loss of habitat and buffel grass fires. Buffel grass catches fire very easily, which spreads to cacti, burning the owl's primary habitat. Its range extends over the border into Sonora, Mexico. G. b. cactorum was delisted in 2006. It was also considered to be an Imperiled Subspecies by NatureServe, [12] with the species as a whole considered Secure.[13]
G. b. cactorum in northwest Mexico The ferruginous pygmy owl (Glaucidium brasilianum) is a small owl that breeds in south-central Arizona and southern Texas in the United States, south through Mexico and Central America, to South America into Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina.
In Central America and South America, it is the most widely distributed pygmy owl and is probably one of the most numerous owl species in those areas. It is found in a wide range of semi-open wooded habitats.
