Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, Glaucidium brasilianum

Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, Glaucidium brasilianum. Photograph taken within a residential community in Alamos, Sonora, December 2017. Photograph and identification courtesy of David F Smith, Alamos, Sonora.

Background and Identification

The Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, Glaucidium brasilianum cactorum, is one of fifteen subspecies of Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, of which four are found in Mexico. They are member of the Strigidae Family of True Owls, that has two hundred twenty-five members placed in twenty-six genera, and one of twenty-seven global members of the Glaucidium Genus. They are known in Mexico as caburé.

The Ferruginous Pygmy Owl is small in stature. They are overall a brown rufous color with the underparts being whitish with coarse dark streaking. Their heads have crowns with prominent white eyebrows with fine, short white streaks and dark “false” eye spots on the back. They have a long tail and are often confused with passerines. The females are larger than the males.

Habitat and Geographical Range

The Ferruginous Pygmy Owl is found in tropical, subtropical and cold temperate lowlands within semiarid deserts to lush tropical rain forests from sea level to elevations up to 1,400 m (4,600 feet). They are non-migratory. They are diurnal predators, with exceptional eyesight and hearing, that consume amphibians, birds, insects, small mammals and reptiles with the majority of foraging occurring at dawn and dusk. They take shelter during daylight hours. They nest in cavities in trees that have been excavated by woodpeckers.

In Mexico the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl is found in all coastal regions of both the Atlantic and Pacific slopes with the exception of northwest Sonora. The cactorum subspecies ranges along the Pacific Slope from the Arizona border south to Nayarit and along the Atlantic Slope from the Texas border to Nuevo León and Tamaulipas.

Common Misidentifications

Conservation Status

From a conservation perspective the Ferruginous Pygmy Owl is currently considered to be of Least Concern, with stable, widely distributed populations, however, in Arizona they are considered to be Federally Endangered.