A small to medium-sized round-headed owl with no ear hairs. Females are more than 50 grams heavier than males. Pale and dark forms exist. The pale form has dark brown and reddish brown on the crown, nape and upper parts, with white to light brown spots and sparse barriers, and a row of white spots on the shoulders. The wing feathers have very wide dark bars and fairly narrow light bars. White or dark yellow lower part with dark brown stripes. Brown face with white eyebrows and beard, with white or brown wrinkles on the edges. The eyes are dark brown and the mouth is yellow. Tarsi have feathered, bare yellow-gray to brown-gray toes with pale character claws. The dark morph is almost dark brown above and dark ocher brown below, with severe dark brown mottled sides on the chest. Young downy chickens are white. The middle conductor is dark yellow with vague stripes on it, the face plate is white, and the beak is light pink. The
call emits a clear and resonant frog-like gwho, and after four or five such calls it becomes a deep gwho-gwho-gwhóho that repeats every few seconds. Food and Hunting Feed on small mammals and birds, but also snakes and frogs.
habitat mainly inhabits primary forest and secondary forest, humid lowland forest, and also dry and thorny forest, from sea level to 800 meters, sometimes to 2500 meters. Status and distribution occurs in eastern Panama to Argentina northeast. This species is common locally but may be threatened by habitat destruction. Research on its ecology, vocalization and reproductive biology needs to be further in-depth. Geographical variation Four subspecies: Nominated Virginia native to eastern Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Trinidad ; McConnelly from Guyana banned below; larger and more reddish-brown superciliaris native Found in northern and northeastern Brazil and the Peruvian Amazon to northwestern Argentina; black wing; from southeastern Brazil and eastern Paraguay to borelliana in northeastern Argentina.
