A medium-sized owl with no ear hairs. Females are approximately 70 grams heavier than males. The crown and nape are divided into light and dark. Dark grey-brown upper part. There are rough white and light orange light brown spots on the back of the wings. The flight feathers are

A medium-sized owl without ear hairs. Females are approximately 70 grams heavier than males. The crown and nape are divided into light and dark. Dark grey-brown upper part. There are rough white and light orange light brown spots on the back of the wings. The flight feathers of and are boldly shaded with dark gray-brown and orange-brown stripes, and there are several narrow light brown stripes on the dark gray-brown tail. Underneath, the throat is white, with fine dark gray-brown and off-white stripes on the foreneck and upper chest, and a very light orange-yellow lower chest and belly with thicker but less striped stripes. The pale off-white dial has narrow darker concentric lines, but the darker wrinkles are not prominent. The eyes are dark brown, and the mouth is horn-shaped, turning yellowish at the tip. There are feathers on the upper part of the toes, the exposed parts of the toes are gray-brown, and the claws are red horn-shaped. Young downy chickens are white. The light taupe medium conductor is very fluffy, with brown filling and a light gray face plate. The

call makes a deep, frog-like croak. The first three notes are quiet, but the next two notes are loud. The sound is similar to the rusty-barred owl, but distinctly different from the red-legged owl. For food and hunting, it hunts small mammals and other small vertebrates such as birds; it also takes insects and other arthropods . Hunts mainly on perches. Habitat prefers dry, semi-open landscapes and thorny scrub on hills or slopes up to 1300m. Status and distribution occur from south Bolivia to the Argentinian provinces of Córdoba and Buenos Aires . It's not rare, but it's rarely studied.

geographical variation haplotype. Previously assigned to a subspecies of the red-legged owl Strix rufipes, although it may be more closely related to the rusty-barred owl Strix hylophila. A similar species of red-footed owl has a shorter tail and reddish-brown feathers on its legs. The slightly sympatric rusty-spotted owl has russet upper limbs and featherless pale yellow toes.