Flammulated owl
species of bird
The flammulated owl (Psiloscops flammeolus) is a small migratory North American owl in the family Strigidae. It is the only species placed in the genus Psiloscops.
Taxonomy
The flammulated owl was formally described in 1852 by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup under the binomial name Scops flammeola . He specified the type location as Mexico. This species was formerly placed with the scops owls in the genus Otus but is now placed in its own genus Psiloscops that was introduced in 1899 by Elliott Coues. The name Psiloscops combines the Ancient Greek psilos meaning "naked" or "smooth" with the genus name Scops, a synonym of Otus. The specific epithet flammeolus is Latin meaning "flame-coloured", "with flame-like markings" or "flammulated". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
A molecular phylogenetic study of the owls published in 2019 found that the flammulated owl is a sister species to the Puerto Rican owl (Gymnasio nudipes).
Description
The flammulated owl is a small, nocturnal owl approximately 15 cm (6 in) long with a 36 cm (14 in) wingspan.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q27074736. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1852, 1899 and 2019.
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This entry incorporates text from “Flammulated owl” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.