Band-bellied Owl Pulsatrix melanota Scientific name definitions

This fairly large owl of humid montane forests ranges along the east slope of the Andes from Colombia to Peru, in the foothills of the upper subtropical zone (replacing Spectacled Owl above 700m). It is scarce and local in Ecuador, and its status is poorly known elsewhere. It is mostly dark brown above, darkest in the head and breast, with narrow black fringing to feathers throughout the upperparts. It has broad, creamy white eyebrows, extending down either side of the bill below the eyes, meeting a thick collar of the same pale color. The underparts are paler, scalloped with brown, rufous and black. Juvenile is mostly pale buff, with cinnamon down on the underparts, brown wings, and chocolate brown fanning out behind the eyes to form the facial disk. It hunts nocturnally from relatively exposed branches and gives a series of muffled hoots, higher and faster than those of the Spectacled Owl.

44–48 cm (1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ); no data on body mass (1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Facial disc brown, with conspicuous white eyebrows and lores; head otherwise uniform dark brown; upperparts chocolate-brown with few buffy-white spots; flight-feathers and tail with widely spaced, thin white bars; throat brown, with distinct white collar below; upper breast rufous-brown, barred and mottled with buff; rest of underparts white, barred reddish-brown, fading to scattered brown bars on creamy belly; tarsus feathered; irides dark reddish-brown; cere and bill pale horn (1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ); toes light greyish-brown. Distinguished from P. perspicillata and P. koeniswaldiana in clearly barred underparts. Juvenile undescribed. Race <em>philoscia</em> possibly larger.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Humid tropical montane and foothills rainforest; also more open woodland locally such as forest borders and clearings with scattered tall trees (3 Freile, J. F. (2004). Range extensions and other noteworthy and new bird records from mainland Ecuador. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 124(3):188–202. Close ). Found from c. 650–2200 m elevation (4 Ridgely, R. S., and P. J. Greenfield (2001). The Birds of Ecuador. Volumes 1–2. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, New York, USA. Close , 5 Schulenberg, T. S., D. F. Stotz, D. F. Lane, J. P. O’Neill, and T. A. Parker (2007). Birds of Peru. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ).

Probably resident (1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ).

Poorly known. The stomach of an individual collected in Ecuador contained remains of Orthoptera (Tettigoniidae, Mantidae) and Coleoptera (Tenebrionidae, Cerambycidae) (6 Cadena-Ortiz, H., Bahamonde-Vinueza, D. and Bonaccorso, E. (2011). Notas sobre la dieta del Búho Ventribandeado (Pulsatrix melanotos) en Ecuador. Ornitología Neotropical. 22(3): 471–475. Close ). Nocturnal.

Poorly known. Said to give a short, deep trill followed by fast burst of popping notes ; several deep, muffled hoots recorded in Peru. Male and female also duet  .

Apparently no published information. Presumably nests in trees in natural cavities (1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ).

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). CITES II. Very poorly known; no estimates of global numbers or of population trends. Considered relatively rare, and very few reliable records, although apparent rarity possibly due partly to species’ nocturnal habits and seldom penetrated forest habitats. Has been recently recorded at Coca Falls and along the Loreto road, Ecuador. Single specimen possibly from Colombia, but lacks locality and date. In general, species could be threatened by habitat loss (1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ).