Western Screech-Owl
The Western Screech-Owl is a small species of owl that lives across western parts of North America, into parts of Central America. They can be found west of the Rocky Mountains.
Western Screech Owls are small, measuring under 9 inches tall with a wingspan of just about 22 inches. They are either brownish or dark grey, and have cute little ear tufts on the tops of their heads.
Like their cousins, the Eastern Screech Owl, Western Screech Owls are cavity nesters. They use holes that were excavated by woodpeckers, sometimes even in cactus plants.
Details & Statistics
- Least Concern (LC)
- Near Threatened (NT)
- Vulnerable (VU)
- Endangered (EN)
- Critically Endangered (CR)
- Extinct in the Wild (EW)
- Extinct (EX)
Conservation
The Western Screech-Owl is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size is very large, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
International Names
