Bearded Screech Owl (Megascops barbarus)
About the Bearded Screech Owl
The bearded screech owl or Santa Barbara screech owl (Megascops barbarus) is a small "typical owl" in subfamily Striginae. It is found in Guatemala and Mexico. The bearded screech owl was first described by Philip Sclater and Osbert Salvin in 1868. It shares genus Megascops with more than 20 other screech owls. It is monotypic. The specific epithet barbarus is derived from the type locality of Santa Bárbara, Vera Paz, Guatemala, and "bearded" is apparently an errant derivation of it (bearded would be barbatus).
No audio on this page yet
We only publish recordings we may use commercially, because this site is supported by ads. xeno-canto lists 9 recordings for this species: 4 CC BY-NC-SA · 2 CC BY-NC-ND. None of them permits commercial use, so there is no player here — the page is kept as a profile so the bird is not missing from the guide.
As soon as someone uploads a freely licensed recording, we mirror it and the player appears here.
Listed as recorded in Guatemala, Mexico in the xeno-canto catalogue.
Related species you can hear
- Bare-shanked Screech OwlMegascops clarkiirecording
- Black-capped Screech OwlMegascops atricapillarecording
- Choco Screech OwlMegascops centralisrecording
- Eastern Screech OwlMegascops asiorecording
- Foothill Screech OwlMegascops roraimaerecording
- Middle American Screech OwlMegascops guatemalaerecording
This species has no recording here yet — these relatives do, so you can hear what the family sounds like.